Blue Heaven
by HardlyFatal
Summary: Class 2D has to take a course in Family Life, where they're all paired off in pretend marriages for the year. Hijinks ensue. Several pairings. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** I hope you like this story, some of it is a bit cracked-out but I tried to include equal amounts of drama to balance the humour. Some chapters are unbetaed, so please tell me of any errors you find so I can correct them. Thanks for reading!

**Blue Heaven, chapter 1**

"This new class sounds… odd, don't you think?" Tohru asked as they walked in the direction of said class. It was the first day of the new term, and to everyone's surprise, a course entitled 'Family Life' had been exchanged for Health.

"I mean," she continued worriedly, "what if they want us to do some sort of project with our families? Like keep a diary that we all have to write in?" Her eyes widened and her speech quickened with each word until her eyes were bugged out and her words all ran together. "ThatwouldbehorriblebecauseIknowmy auntanduncleandcousinwouldn't—"

She was abruptly cut off when Kyou's hand lightly cuffed her on the back of the head. "Shut up," he told her genially. "If that's what it is, we'll just make something up."

A sane person might have taken offense, but Tohru just beamed at him. "That's so kind of you, Kyou-kun," she burbled happily, "going to that much trouble for me."

Shifting uncomfortably, Kyou glanced round at the others. "Not like any of us have normal home lives," he said. "We're all going to be lying our asses off."

Hana turned her liquid gaze upon him. "My home life is perfectly normal," she said tonelessly.

"And ain't that ironic?" Uo muttered wryly. She didn't know the whole story behind the Sohmas, but with half of them living with people other than their actual parents, it sure didn't look good for them.

"Hana-chan has a wonderful family!" Tohru enthused.

"So what happened to her?" Kyou wanted to know, but… _something_… sizzled and with a truncated yelp, he abruptly fell silent, much to Yuki's amusement— the smile that crossed his face was nothing short of luminous.

Kyou shot them all a filthy look and loped down the hall, darting into the room ahead of them. They followed more slowly, taking their seats.

Uo watched the teacher, but there was no hint of the torture to come on Kurosaki-sensei's face. She really hoped it wouldn't be any sort of stupid diary thing, as she sincerely doubted her father could stay sober long enough to write a coherent paragraph or two.

"I'm sure you've all been speculating as to what this class will entail," Mr. Kurosaki said by way of beginning, "but I don't think any of you have been able to guess correctly."

A groan went up among the students, Kyou chief among them. Mr. Kurosaki flashed a grin that clearly said, "if I have to go through this, so do you."

"For this class, you will have a fictional marriage with another classmate. Your grade is based on how you respond to the real-life, adult issues assigned to you throughout the course of the year."

The teacher's words were met with varied gasps of astonishment, dismay, and delight. (that last from members of the Prince Yuki Fan Club at the idea of being 'married' to their reigning monarch)

"You will be expected to work closely together for several months, which is why you'll be allowed to choose your spouse instead of having one be assigned to you. You have ten minutes to find yourselves a husband or wife; if by the end of that time you are unattached, another single person will be assigned as your spouse."

There was an air of breathless suspense. Uo imagined she could hear the finger tendons twanging like guitar strings on the girls who were gripping the edges of their desks, forcibly restraining themselves from rushing in Yuki's direction. She ducked her head, letting her hair swing forward and cover her face so she could grin.

"Your ten minutes starts… now," Mr. Kurosaki said, and there was a bone-jarring cacophony as chairs were scraped back and feet thundered across the linoleum.

Uo ran a discerning eye over her prospects, which were, she was sorry to say, few and meager. To no one's surprise, Yuki had immediately been surrounded by every girl in the room except for herself, Hana, and Tohru.

Hana sat calmly at her desk, eyes glazed as she stared out the window in supreme disinterest. Kyou was tensely mauling a pencil, his gaze fixed with malevolent jealousy at the swarm around his cousin. He appeared to be looking for someone in particular.

Tohru, also to no one's surprise, went directly to him. "Kyou-kun," she began, then leapt back when he twitched violently in surprise.

"Yeah?" he snarled. His face wore its customary surly expression, but it softened marginally when he saw who it was. "Yeah?" he repeated in a slightly more pleasant tone.

"I was wondering… if you wouldn't mind too terribly…" Tohru flushed a brilliant pink and began bowing repeatedly and quickly. "That is to say—"

"Just spit it out," Kyou commanded. _The kid might have a shitty personality,_ Uo thought, _but he wasn't stupid_. It was clear he had a suspicion what Tohru was going to say, if the equally bright pink his ears were turning was any indication.

"If it wouldn't be too much of a horrible, horrible imposition," Tohru whispered miserably, hands twisting the hem of her skirt into a wrinkled mess, "would Kyou-kun do me the honour of marrying me?"

Aching hope skittered across the boy's features before he was able to get himself under control, leaving Uo feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed, as if she'd witnessed something private that she had no right to see. She glanced away, toward her other friend.

"Hey, Hana," she called, getting that girl's attention. "Wanna shack up and be the fashionable lesbian couple?"

Hana's brilliantly dark eyes turned slowly toward her. "No," she replied, "but thank you for asking."

Uo sighed and looked around. Tohru was beaming again, and Kyou had a tentative smile on his face, so Uo knew they'd worked things out between them. There were a few boys loitering across the room, shooting speculative and hopeful glances her way, but she sincerely doubted she'd have the patience to be "married" to them for the rest of the school year.

Across the room, Yuki Sohma looked about two minutes from hanging himself. At least a dozen girls were still clamoring in a tight ring around his desk, all promising to be the best wife ever, to do his laundry and cook his meals and rub his shoulders and—

A rare flash of pity twanged through Uo and before she knew entirely what she was doing, she was up and striding toward his side of the room. She shouldered her way easily through the throng and faced it down, putting herself between them and him.

"Get lost," she said menacingly. "I'm gonna be the princess of this kingdom."

"Miss Uotani," Yuki said, clearly startled, "this is very kind of you, but not at all necessary."

She didn't tear her eyes away from the staring contest she was conducting with a particularly hostile fan of the prince, but answered out of the side of her mouth.

"You're the least obnoxious guy in the room right now," she told him flatly. "I'm doing this for myself as much as for you. We get along, right?" Now she did dart a glance at him. At his nod, she continued. "So this won't hurt nearly as much as if you had to have one of these idiots—" she jerked a thumb at the remaining protesters "—or if I had to settle for one of those mouth-breathers over there."

The other thumb pointed at the remaining boys on the far side of the room, staring wistfully in their direction.

"Deal?" Uo asked, smiling broadly and sticking out her hand to shake.

"It's a deal, Mrs. Sohma," Yuki said after a moment's hesitation, smiling back and grasping her hand in his own. The resultant wail that went up from the disappointed huddle of girls only made them grin harder.

"Alright, alright, everyone back in your seats. When I call your name, announce your new spouse's name," called the teacher over the chatter.

Tohru jumped slightly in her chair when her name was called, but her voice was clear and strong when she spoke. "Sohma Kyou." A few aisles away, Uo could see the tension in Kyou's shoulders relax fractionally.

When her own name was called, Uo couldn't keep the smug grin from spreading across her face. "I landed Yuki Sohma," she announced gaily.

Tohru spun around in her seat, wide-eyed. "Oh, good!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands. "I'm sure Yuki-kun will make a wonderful husband!"

"And if he doesn't…" Uo cracked her knuckles loudly, and laughed at the fan club members' outraged glares. Yuki only shook his head at her in amusement.

"Hanajima Saki," the teacher said. "Who have you married?"

"I am a widow," Hana replied serenely. "My husband died on our wedding day."

"Miss Hanajima, that's not how this works," the teacher said with forced patience. "The point of this exercise is to work with another person in a typical family unit so you get some experience with it."

"It was tragic," Hana continued, as if the teacher hadn't spoken. "As we came out of the temple, a freak storm came up and blew over a tree, which fell on him. All his internal organs were crushed. I was devastated, but am holding up well under the circumstances."

All this was said with a perfectly deadpan expression, but when the teacher opened his mouth to protest once more a halo of sparks sizzled around Hana's head, briefly illuminating the room with pale blue.

"You have my condolences," he said tiredly, sighing, and sat heavily in his chair as Hana nodded her thanks with all the regality of a queen.

xXx

At lunchtime, Momiji bounded the hall toward them with Hatsuharu a few, rather more sedate, paces behind his cousin. "How was that class? Will you have to write out diaries?"

"No, it's going to be much better than that!" Tohru enthused. "Kyou-kun and I are married, and we have to keep a ledger of household expenses, and every week another issue will be given to us that we have to overcome, and there will be role-playing so we learn how to work through our differences, and—"

"You married Kyou?" Hatsuharu quirked a brow, eyes flicking toward Yuki.

"Yeah, what of it?" Kyou demanded hotly, getting in his cousin's face.

"He didn't mean anything by it, I'm sure!" Tohru said, insinuating herself between the two boys and pushing on Kyou's chest until he backed off.

"Then who did you marry?" Haru asked Yuki, unperturbed. Kyou seethed and let Tohru placate him.

"Me," Uo said, stepping up. "It was the least I could do, with all those she-wolves circling him like that."

"That means you're the princess, then!" Momiji said happily. "You need a tiara!"

"Can you see me in a tiara?" Uo snorted, though secretly she liked the idea.

"Yes," Hana replied vacantly. "A tiara of pearls, with sapphires to match your eyes. Yes, sapphires… they have excellent vibrations."

"I can't wait to get started!" Tohru said into the silence that fell after that statement. "When do you want to do it, Kyou-kun?"

Kyou started so drastically he tripped over his own feet and nearly fell to the floor. "What?" he gasped, staggering slightly as he regained his footing.

"Our assignment for this week," she clarified, oblivious to his reaction and Uo's laughter. "We have to come up with a household budget. When do you want to do that?"

"I don't care," he replied, glaring daggers at Haru, who was smirking at him. "Just tell me when you want to, and we will."

"Okay!" she said cheerfully, and turned away to respond to Momiji's persistent questioning.

"Whipped already," Haru commented.

"I am not whipped!" Kyou howled, coming after his cousin with murder in his eye.

"You are _so_ whipped," Uo couldn't keep from goading him, and he turned toward her with hands outstretched.

"There's nothing wrong with being amenable to your wife's desires," Hana intoned. "I myself had every intention of being that sort of easygoing spouse, before my tragic and untimely widowhood."

Kyou's angry colour abruptly left him at her use of the word "desires". Turning on his heel, he fled down the hallway.

"Where's Kyou-kun going?" Tohru asked, watching his escape.

"He needed some air," Haru replied. "I think marriage is stifling him."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **I wasn't able to get this betaed so please, please forgive me for any mistakes or problems you find. (and please let me know, so I can fix them!)

**Blue Heaven, Chapter Two **

"Today," announced Mr. Kurosaki, "we're going to assign everyone a life-altering discovery, and then each couple is going to role-play how you deal with the issue."

It was a month later, and so far Family Life had actually been kind of… fun. Tohru had swiftly learned that Kyou was far more pleasant to be around if they completed their assignments without anyone watching. At her request, Hana invited Uo and Yuki to do their homework at her house on a weekly basis, leaving only Shigure for Tohru and Kyou to deal with at home.

The first week they'd created a budget together, and the second they'd worked out which of the household chores would be done by whom. The third week had consisted of the two of them deciding if they could afford for Tohru to attend college part-time (the answer was yes, if they were careful with their money).

The fourth week, they had to deal with annoying neighbours. Since they lived with Shigure, that wasn't much of a stretch. It was decided that Tohru would be the one to handle issues of diplomacy, with Kyou standing sentinel to make sure she wasn't taken advantage of.

That was the first time they had role-played in the situation, Mr. Kurosaki portraying the part of the obnoxious neighbour with unseemly glee. They had done so well that he'd given them an A for that week. In general, they were well-matched, strong where the other was weak, and so went forward into week five of Family Life without many misgivings.

That all changed when Mr. Kurosaki announced that week's assignment. He went around the room with a basket filled with slips of paper.

"Each couple will have a different problem to face and overcome," he announced. "And this issue will be a long-term one, something you will have to incorporate into future weeks." Something about the way he said it was ominous and Tohru made a quick wish that theirs wouldn't be something too hideously awful.

The basket was thrust under their noses. "Your turn," Mr. Kurosaki said, smiling down at them.

Kyou reached into it, only to have his hand smacked away.

"Ladies first!" the teacher sang, reminding them both rather strongly of Ayame. Kyou jerked back and Tohru hesitantly put her hand in the basket, as if afraid something in it would bite her.

She was able to withdraw a slip of paper without incident, however, and unfolded it. Her eyes flicked over what was written; immediately, she turned tomato-red.

"Oh," she murmured, folding it back up with precise care.

"What is it?" Kyou asked, curious. "What does it say happens to us this week?

She (somehow) blushed even harder and stared fixedly at her hands, mumbling something so quietly that even his keen hearing couldn't pick it up. Sighing, he placed his hands on either side of her face and gently forced her to look at him.

"Tell me," he insisted. "C'mon, how bad could it be?"

"I'm, er," she began, lips trembling (in a particularly beguiling manner, to Kyou's way of thinking). "I'm pregnant!" she blurted out suddenly.

The words didn't compute in his head right away. At first, all he heard was the startled laughter of the others around them (Tohru had been rather loud). Then the words penetrated and he found himself struggling to draw air into his lungs, his hands dropping from Tohru's head to hang limply by his sides. For her to be "pregnant", they'd have had to—

"I'm sorry," he gasped, the only thing he could say as the implications of it thudded into him. Now it was his turn to do a tomato impression; he went bright-red in two seconds flat.

But Tohru wasn't looking very sorry; her embarrassment (and her colour) had started to fade and she was beginning to get excited.

"Hana! Uo!" she cried, "We're going to have a baby!" The girls blinked, then grinned at her. "Oh, I _love_ babies," she said, turning back to Kyou. "This is wonderful! And here I was afraid we'd get something _bad_!"

Kyou still hadn't spoken since his shocked apology, and Tohru's happiness dimmed as she studied his face.

"Aren't you— you're not happy about this, are you," she said dully, and stared down at where she twisted her fingers together. "Is it because you think I'd be a bad mother? Because I probably would be, the way I'm so clumsy all the time and always falling over but I'd try my best and—"

"No!" Kyou interrupted. "I was just— just surprised, is all. I never thought about being a father before, and then, you know, _getting_ pregnant…" He looked away, staring determinedly out the window. "I was just surprised."

Tohru had finally picked up on the more subtle aspects of what it meant to have a baby and soon her face matched his in embarrassment. "Let's not think about that part," she exclaimed, voice a bit shrill.

"I'm a boy," Kyou snapped before he could help it. "It's all I _ever_ think about."

Shocked, Tohru spun in her seat to face away from him.

_Is that true?_ she wondered. _Boys only think about… that? _**Kyou** _always thinks about that? Does he think about it with _**me**_? Oh, Mom, I'm going to catch on fire, I'm blushing so hard… safe thoughts. I need to think safe thoughts…_

She cast about desperately for a less dangerous topic of conversation and pounced on the first that popped into her mind with immense relief.

"You never thought about having children before?" she managed after a while, spinning back to face him. When he shook his head, she said, "I think Kyou-kun would be a wonderful father."

He glanced at her quickly, then gave a short bark of laughter. It sounded harsh and bitter, not amused at all, and Tohru's heart began that familiar ache she felt whenever she thought about how badly he'd been treated.

"What, with my temper? And the way the rest of the family acts toward me? And… with what they want to do to me after I graduate?"

This last was said softly, for her ears only.

"No, I'd be a lousy father," Kyou concluded, looking out the window once again. He clenched his hands into fists as a sense of loss for something he'd never known he wanted coursed through him.

Then her hands touched his, fingers prying his fists loose and folding around, twining with his own. "Kyou-kun would be a wonderful father," Tohru repeated, very firmly, and nodded with great determination. "Just like he's a wonderful friend and—and a wonderful husband."

She was back to blushing furiously, but this time didn't drop her eyes or fiddle with her skirt hem.

A wave of emotion rippled through Kyou. "How do you know that?" he demanded, voice a little rough.

She beamed up at him, squeezing his hands. "Mom always said that you can tell how a man is going to be with his kids by the way he acts with animals, and you're very good to animals. And to me, and to Kazuma-sensei, and—"

"I'm horrible with anyone else, though," he interrupted.

She only smiled wider. "But you're great with people you love, and you'd love our baby very much, wouldn't you? So it doesn't matter if you're not too nice to other people, as long as you're good to the ones you love."

Speechless, he could only stare down at her for the longest time. "You—" he stopped, licked his lips nervously. "You'd be a good mother," he said at last. "Really good. Your kid would be the luckiest kid ever."

Her lips parted in pleased surprise, and she squeezed his hands again while bouncing happily. He gazed down at her, drinking in her wide blue eyes and upturned face until he felt he was brimming over with… something, some unnamed but powerful thing.

"Excellent!" proclaimed Mr. Kurosaki, appearing beside them. "We all have doubts as to how qualified we are to handle things like this, but as a married couple you have to support and encourage each other! An excellent role-play in how to deal with the sudden news of impending parenthood, don't you all agree?"

He turned to gesture at their classmates, all of whom, Tohru and Kyou now realized, had watched them throughout the entire thing. Politely, they all began to clap their hands.

Hana watched them with satisfaction in her fathomless eyes; Yuki and Uo both appeared to be rather dumbfounded, and joined in the applause a moment after everyone else.

Kyou and Tohru immediately turned scarlet and leapt away from each other.

"So," Mr. Kurosaki said, returning to the front of the room and motioning for them to take their seats, "as we can see, the major life disruption Mr. and Mrs. Sohma have to face is an unplanned pregnancy." He grinned at their renewed blushing when he addressed them that way. "Let's discuss how the rest of you did. The other Mr. and Mrs. Sohma— what catastrophe will you be enduring?"

Uo stood and answered for them. "I've contracted a serious illness and have had to be hospitalized." At Tohru's gasp of dismay, she flashed her friend a jaunty grin. "My ever-loving husband was more upset than I was at first, but I've calmed him down." She paused for effect. "The sedatives help." Her classmates tittered, and she sat.

It had been pretty funny, actually; when she'd unfolded the slip of paper revealing that—surprise!—she now had meningitis, the prince's reaction had been quite dramatic. He'd paled, and stretched his hand across the desk to take hers.

"That's horrible," he'd said in his calm voice. "I'm so sorry."

It had irritated her at first, how he was always so placid. _Boring_, she'd thought when she'd first come to know him through Tohru. Plus, with all those fangirls after him, she'd been sure he was stuck-up and arrogant. But he really wasn't, and got along with everyone except that stupid cousin of his. Most importantly, he was good to Tohru, so Uo figured she'd let him live.

And now, after spending considerably more time with him in the past weeks, she'd come to find that voice of his soothing. Her nerves were always jangling all over the place so much that it was nice to feel them smooth out at the sound of him speaking. She also liked to see how seriously he was taking this pretend marriage thing.

_If he approached a real relationship with half as much care and caution, _Uo thought, _he'd be a dream to be married to._

So far, his unfailing courtesy and kindness had made for a completely satisfactory joint project, much to her relief. If she'd had to pair up with Carrot-Top over there, she was 98 sure there'd have been bloodshed. And perhaps lengthy jail terms.

And so Uo had laughed, aware how it drew the attention of his fans, and patted his hand over hers with her other, free one. She flashed the now-glaring, furious fans a smirk before turning back to the prince.

"It's not that big a deal," she reminded him. "Only pretend, remember? And besides, special doctors cost. We've got that budget to remember. Regular ones are fine for me."

Yuki-san's spine seemed to snap to attention, his hand falling away from hers to his lap as his brows knit in consternation.

"Of course not," he had replied, a note of steel in his voice. "The Sohmas are very wealthy, and always given the best of care." Then he bowed slightly. "It is my honour to provide the best of everything for you, Uotani-san."

She blinked. "Well, damn!" she said with a laugh after a moment. "Cute, nice _and_ rich! I might have to marry you for real!"

He had blushed faintly, looking away, and then Tohru had distracted them by shouting for all the world to hear of her impending bundle of joy.

And now the prince was rising to stand beside Uo. "At first, Uotani-san didn't want to take advantage of all the resources available to her as my wife, preferring to stay on-budget," he said, "but I convinced her that her health was more important. So I think we've successfully navigated a potential disagreement as well, and made a reasoned decision concerning our expenses."

Mr. Kurosaki blinked, assimilating all of those 50-yen words, and then nodded. "Good job. 'A' for you two this week."

"Wow," Uo whispered to the prince as they sat again, "you even manage to make something romantic sound like an accountant report. That takes skill."

"I can be romantic, in the right time and place, Uotani-san." He didn't look at her as he said it, his gaze fixed on the teacher who was discussing the week's issue with another couple, but there was an odd note in his voice that inexplicably had Uo's cheeks pinking up.

"Yeah, right," she grunted. _When all else fails, get belligerent_ was her motto, after all.

"You're skeptical." One side of his mouth curled. "I'll just have to prove it to you one day."

Eyes wide, Uo was cut off from answering because it was Hana's turn to report her own personal disaster.

"My house caught on fire," she said, giving a tiny smile of reassurance at Tohru's gasp. ("Oh, no! Not Hana-chan!") "I lost everything."

"I see," said Mr. Kurosaki, pausing a moment before continuing with a sort of resignation, as if afraid to probe further. "And how have you handled it?"

"I had a nervous breakdown and had to be put away," Hana replied smoothly. "I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which only compounded the abandonment issues I'd contracted as a result of my husband's tragic demise on our wedding day only months earlier."

"Ahaha," said Mr. Kurosaki, nervously, and began shuffling the papers around on his desk.

"In spite of the heavy cocktail of psychotropics I was given, I managed to escape the institution," Hana continued dreamily. "Firmly in the grip of my delusions, I wandered the streets, sleeping in the train station and begging for handouts." Pause. "Of course, I still continued to look both stylish and appropriately mournful."

"Of course," Mr. Kurosaki replied weakly. "Next—"

But Hana was on a roll and would not be stopped. "One day, while performing heart-breaking yet melodic tunes for spare change from passers-by, a stranger recognizes me and stops. It's Tohru-chan. She is horrified to see the depths to which one of her friends has sunk."

At this revelation, Tohru leapt from her seat and bounded over, crying, "Oh, Hana-chan, I'm so upset to see you like this!"

Hana turned to face the now-weeping Tohru and took her hands. "You insist on taking me away from the train station, and bring me to live with you. You and your husband welcome me into your home—"

Here, Kyou's expression of horror gave way to one of anger. "We do not!" he shouted. "Like hell you're gonna live with us—" A zap sounded in his vicinity and he yelped, then fell silent, settling for glaring furiously at her.

"—and I become the nanny for your baby," Hana continued seamlessly. "We now await its arrival eagerly. I've already begun decorating the nursery. In tasteful silks and laces-- of the purest black, of course-- the baby will thrive surrounded by—"

"Um, Hana-chan?" Tohru interrupted. Her tears had dried and she was now smiling, but tentatively. "I had been thinking of ducks for the nursery, actually."

"…ducks?" Hana pondered that a moment. Then, "Can they be _black_ ducks?"

"No!" Kyou howled. "You _lunatic_!"

_Zap!_

"Will you stop doing that?" he roared, face bright with frustration.

"No."

"Grarrr!" With that incoherent expression of rage, Kyou stomped from the room, slamming the door so it rattled on its hinges.

Hana watched him go, then turned back to Tohru. She, too, seemed rattled by her "husband's" dramatic exit, but rallied quickly.

"Black ducks are fine, Hana-chan!" she exclaimed cheerily.

And Hana was pleased.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Not betaed. This chapter takes a slightly more adult turn than the previous two, but Hana's still nuts. I have polished it a little, made Hana a little more subtle and corrected the honourifics (hopefully).

**Blue Heaven, chapter 3**

"Why are you going so crazy making dinner?" Kyou asked, puzzled at the vast array of ingredients spread over every surface of the kitchen. "I thought the rat was out with Uotani today, working on the project."

"He is," Tohru confirmed. "I've invited Shishou to dinner tonight!"

He blinked, surprised. "That's great! But why? What's the occasion?"

"It's normal to have one's in-laws over for dinner." She blushed profusely and turned away, furiously beating at a bowl of tempura batter. "And I know it's been a while since Kyou-kun has seen Kazuma-sensei outside of the dojo, so I thought it would be good."

Kyou felt a dense tangle of emotions at her words: surprise and pleasure at seeing his father-figure, gratitude for Tohru's thoughtfulness, and the familiar swamping sensation of affection he got whenever she did something nice for him.

Thoroughly unable to express even a fraction of any of it, he jammed his hands in his pockets and mumbled, "Want me to help cook?"

Tohru's face lit up. "Sure!" she replied cheerfully. "You can cut up the ingredients for the sukiyaki! You're so good at cutting everything evenly."

Flushing, he took his place at the counter and began to slice the beef very thinly. Side by side, they worked companionably. Tohru was truly a whiz at cooking, effortlessly juggling a dozen different recipes and preparations at once.

"I imagine this is what it's like when you really are married," she confided in him after a while. "Helping each other, enjoying each other's company."

She didn't seem to know what she was saying, what the implications could be taken as, but Kyou was acutely aware. If they were really married, though, he wouldn't feel so stupid and embarrassed about it all, and he especially wouldn't be so nervous and sweaty just by standing next to her, shoulders bumping on occasion. He'd be able to bump into her all the time, touch her whenever he wanted, kiss her—

"Kyou-kun, could you get the door?" Tohru asked, jolting him from his reverie. "Someone's knocking."

He gulped. "Sure," he said, a little relieved to have been derailed from that train of thought, and bounded toward the front door. To his consternation, Hanajima stood outside in full funereal garb.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. She swept by him, her shoes seeming to simply fall away as she barely paused en route to locating her friend.

"Tohru-chan invited me," she said, her voice and black veil drifting back to him. "It's only right to extend a hand to bereaved friends in need of comfort."

"That girl's a fruit loop," Kyou muttered to himself, stomping back to the kitchen. "Why's she here?" he asked Tohru.

The girl flushed scarlet. "Well, I thought that since Kazuma-sensei was coming for dinner, it might be nice if Hana-chan did, too."

Kyou remembered belatedly how the psychic had previously expressed her interest in his father. "Gyahhhhh!" he shouted. "No, no, no! That's a _terrible_ idea—"

"Oh, but Kyou-kun--" Tohru protested.

"That _is_ nice," Hana said, gazing blankly out the window as she removed her veil. Her hair was not braided today and fell, unbound, almost to her waist. "Tohru-chan is always so considerate."

"She is at that," Shigure agreed, appearing in the door to the hallway with Kazuma peering over his shoulder from behind, "but what's all the commotion?"

Kyou fell silent, and Tohru bounded forward.

"Welcome, Shishou-san!" she said brightly, and bowed. "I'm so glad you could come."

The martial arts instructor looked a little bemused in the face of such enthusiasm— though as he came to know Tohru better, it surprised him less and less— in contrast to his son's blustering attitude and sulky expression.

"Thank you," Kazuma said at last, bowing slightly in return. "It was kind of you to invite me. Shigure told me something about you and Kyou being married." At this, he arched a dark silver brow. "Did my invitation get lost in the mail?"

Kyou muttered something obscene under his breath and stomped back to the rice balls.

"Ahaha!" Tohru said, a trifle nervously. "It's just an assignment for school, to prepare us for being married one day. I know it's been a while since Shishou-san and Kyou-kun have seen each other so I thought a good wife would arrange to have her father-in-law over for dinner."

"You're certainly taking your role as Kyou's wife seriously," Shigure commented lightly. "Whatever will he do when this assignment is over and you're back to treating him like a regular person instead of your husband?"

Tohru's clueless expression said louder than words that she hadn't considered that, but she wasn't allowed time to think more deeply about the matter because Shigure was oozing across the room toward Hana.

"And what have we here?" he purred. "One of your lovely friends from school. How utterly delightful to have you join us in this simple repast—" he gestured expansively at the elaborate feast being prepared around them "—and take advantage of our hospitality."

"I won't date you," she informed him calmly.

Dead silence ensued, broken only by the sound of Kyou choking on his tongue.

"Well," Shigure said after a moment, "it's good to get that out of the way from the very beginning." He patted down his yukata in search of his cigarettes. "I think now's as good a time as any for a little smoking break, don't you agree, Kazuma?"

He ambled from the kitchen, cigarette clamped between his lips as he continued his search, this time for a lighter, and Tohru tittered nervously.

"Ahaha!" she said. "Everything's almost done. Shishou-san, Hana-chan, why don't you go into the garden and chat while Kyou-kun and I put the finishing touches on everything?"

"A fine idea," Hana intoned, coming toward him, and to his surprise, tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow to lead him from the room.

"I don't recall exactly," Kazuma said, "but we have met before, yes?"

"At the play," she said once they were standing, somewhat awkwardly in his case, in the garden. "I played the lead role of Cinderella. We met afterwards. But you first caught my attention when you came to the school for your son's career counseling day."

"I… did?" Kazuma felt like he was reading a book from the middle, instead of starting at the beginning. "How did I do that?"

"You didn't have to do a thing. I could feel you."

That was not what he'd expected to hear from a young girl in his company. Usually they giggled stupidly and tried to discuss the latest teen idols. This Hanajima-san had a gravity about her that was rare for her age.

"You _felt_ me?" It sounded horribly suggestive, and probably illegal. But surely she wasn't trying to be so forward. He must have misunderstood her.

She strolled languidly around the various boulders of the garden, head cocked at the sound of a bird's call, and he allowed himself to study her. At first glance, she was unexceptional—typical dark hair and eyes, monotone voice. But as the seconds ticked away he could see that her eyes were fine and intelligent, and her hair had a natural wave to it that suggested it might like to curl around a man's fingers when he ran them through it.

"Your electric signals," she elaborated after a moment, not really clarifying anything for him at all. "They call to me in a most delicious manner." This time, she held his gaze as she spoke, and there was no doubt— even to the insistence of Kazuma's denial mechanism— of her meaning. Her voice had a sibilance to it that whispered along his spine in a rather worrying manner.

His first response was a rather primal male satisfaction. It was always satisfying, after all, to be shown you were pleasing to the opposite sex. The sensation of mild alarm and blatant disbelief followed swiftly on its heels—this would not do, not at all.

"Are you aware of the difference in our ages, Hanajima-san?" he asked carefully, feeling a tide of relief as Shigure joined them from the house. "I'm over thirty years old, you know."

"Ah," Hanajima-san said, as if all the mysteries to the universe had been laid bare before her. Which, as a psychic, most of them probably were. "You are apprehensive because I'm underage." Her eyes, liquid and deep, rested caressingly on him. "I won't be eighteen for another fourteen months, but I'm a patient woman. I can wait."

Kazuma blinked. Clearly, the easy way out would not work with this girl. "Has it not occurred to you that I might already be married or involved with someone?"

"You are not. Your electrical signals are those of a man without emotional ties."

Speechless, Kazuma turned to Shigure. The shoji opened and Kyou stepped out, about to speak but holding his tongue when he saw them already deep in conversation.

"Frankly, I don't understand your reluctance," Shigure said breezily, as usual of no help at all. "If I had such a lovely young lady so determined to have her way with me, I would be eagerly accepting her attentions, not trying to convince her of the error of her ways."

He leered handsomely at her. "And if you happen to change your mind, Hanajima-san—"

Her gaze did not waver from Kazuma. "I will not."

Shigure sighed theatrically. "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride," he lamented. "Perhaps someday, there will be a beautiful high school girl to fling herself at me, and then I will accept with abandon—"

"Pervert!" Kyou roared, and pounded him on the head with a fist.

Kazuma put a restraining hand on his son's shoulder and guided him away from Shigure, determined to get through to this girl the ridiculous nature of her infatuation. "Hanajima-san, you hardly know me. I'm flattered that you find my looks appealing, but there's no way you can possibly feel any real or lasting—"

"This has nothing to do with your looks, though they are attractive to me," she interrupted calmly. "I barely noticed your face, the first time I saw you. The Sohmas are a beautiful family, you didn't stand out at all."

Kazuma wondered, absently, if he should be insulted.

"No, it was your vibrations that attracted me that day," Hana continued dreamily, eyes falling closed. "Such a sense of equanimity, of passion tempered with discipline, compassion and affection and a determination to make right what had been wrong." She opened her eyes once more, fixing them on Kazuma. "You are a man I can admire and respect as well as desire. That doesn't happen every day, you know."

For his part, Kazuma was dumbfounded. He'd never in his life met such a straightforward person— female or not— and he was at a loss as to how to deal with her. More disturbingly, he was finding himself increasingly attracted to her. She was weird as hell, but obviously quite bright. Her forthright nature, uncanny appreciation of his traits— in spite of himself, he had to admit that she'd pretty well nailed him—and, not least, dramatic dark looks were quite a draw to him.

She spoke of desire; her glimmering eyes seemed to be peering right into his soul, and he had an insidious premonitory flash of her beneath him, nude, glorious hair spread out around her head. His belly tightened at the thought in the split second he indulged the fantasy before squashing it ruthlessly.

_No,_ he told himself sternly, none of that matters. _She's only sixteen. It's out of the question._

She smiled at him. Just a small smile, a tiny quirking of the corners of her mouth, but it made him break out into a sweat like a teenaged boy. _She knows,_ he thought, slightly panicked. _She knows._

"I won't lay a hand on you until you're eighteen," he was appalled to hear himself say, vaguely aware of the expression of outright horror on Kyou's face. "Talking only."

"That's fine," Hana agreed demurely. "So long as _my_ hands can do what they like."

"Hana-chan," Tohru interceded at last, having come out to the porch, "Come with me to the kitchen." Her face was nearly purple at all the innuendo and implications being bandied around.

Tohru fled into the kitchen with Hana following at a far more sedate pace. Her splendid figure was shown to great advantage in the clingy knit of her long, slim dress, which whispered silkily as she passed him. The faint scent of her— gardenia, if he weren't mistaken— teased his nose and Kazuma felt his throat work helplessly as he swallowed.

"I'm doomed," he whispered, following her with his gaze as she disappeared through the curtain. He turned to the other men with despair dawning in his eyes. "Doomed."

Shigure, now seated on the floor, looked distinctly unconcerned. He lounged back on his elbows and grinned foolishly. "Ah, but what a way to go, my friend. What a way to go."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **I'm aware Hanajima and perhaps Kazuma are somewhat OOC but I wanted to play around a little with them for comic effect. It appears to be working, most of you seem (by your reviews) to be enjoying their interaction a lot. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy this chapter, too :)

**Blue Heaven, chapter 4**

"A Little Bright Light"

With all the other residents of the house out for dinner and "shopping for the baby", Yuki had invited Uotani to do their weekly homework at Shigure's home. Tohru left them a meal and nervously repeated to Yuki instructions for how not to burn down the kitchen making tea. Uo, laughing, reminded her friend that she was perfectly capable of making tea, not to worry, and go have fun.

Now, two hours later, with the food eaten and tea drunk, they'd gotten to work. Uo looked blankly down at the small ledger in which she and Yuki kept their household budget, the numbers blurring together after being stared at so long. Even after all her finagling, they were still short for that month, thanks to all her medical expenses. Unless…

"Yuki-san, we're gonna have to dip into your Sohma money," she told him, looking up and across the table to where he sat. "I've tried everything, but with that special medicine… there's just no way we can stretch our budget to cover everything."

His mouth tightened, but he said nothing for a moment. Their challenge last week had been to decide whether or not they would take advantage of a new medication that, while it boasted amazing success, was also horribly expensive. Uo hadn't wanted to wreck their budget that badly on it, but Yuki had insisted, saying they would use the money that was his Sohma birthright if it came to it.

"Alright," he said at last, his voice soft as ever, but there was a thread of something… else, underlying it. "It was me who wanted you to have the medicine, so I'll just deal with what it takes to buy it."

Uo couldn't for the life of her understand his reluctance to use his relatives' money. If she had rich people practically begging her to spend their cash, she'd do it with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. But she'd come to learn that Yuki had a somewhat uncomfortable relationship with his family, and out of respect for him, hadn't pried more into the matter (even though she was dying to know).

Yuki's face was still, uncommonly so even for him, and Uo found herself hating that frozen, numb expression.

"So, it's nice and peaceful here, without Kyon-Kyon and Shigure-san making all that noise," she commented, looking around them. It was true— without the two most boisterous of its inhabitants, Shigure's house was fabulously serene.

Uo couldn't help but compare it to the tiny apartment she shared with her father, when he could be bothered to come home, which wasn't often. She shoved back the tiny burst of envy and resentment, instead concentrating on being happy that Yuki and Tohru (and even Kyou, if it came to it) had such a nice place to live.

Yuki visibly brightened, his eyes lighting up as he smiled. "Yes, isn't it?" he said, also gazing around. "Sometimes I wish they wouldn't come home-- not Honda-san, of course, but the other two…"

She grinned. "I know what you mean. My place is the same, without my father. Nice and clean, and quiet. Can't beat that."

The words had no sooner left her mouth than an echoing thud told them the front door had been flung open.

"YUUUKIII!" exclaimed a voice. "I have learned JUST THIS VERY MINUTE—well, twenty minutes ago, it took me a while to get here—that you have PLEDGED YOUR TROTH. I had been SO CERTAIN that your feelings lay with Honda-san, but to learn you are with ANOTHER GIRL, A YANKEE, NO LESS. Why, it made my heart TWIST WITHIN MY CHEST that my brother, my DEAR AND PRECIOUS brother, would commit his life to another at such a TENDER AND IMPRESSIONABLE AGE."

And into the room swept a most extraordinary figure. He was an almost exact, if older, replica of Yuki, with longer hair and green-gold eyes instead of violet-blue. Behind him was a positive flood of people—mostly Sohmas, though Uo spied Tohru looking anxious and Hana being inscrutable, as always.

At the mention of Yuki marrying Tohru, Uo saw Kyou tense and open his mouth as if to say something, but Tohru took his hand and looked beseechingly up at him. Instantly, his mood defused and he relaxed. He even went so far as to smile down at her, a tiny but reassuring smile that was answered by Tohru's own.

Uo blinked, filing away that information for later. Right now, she had this… really loud person to contend with.

"Is this my new SISTER-IN-LAW?" the Yuki-alike boomed, gliding to her and grabbing her hands. "Ah, so tall! So statuesque! And WHAT UNUSUAL COLOURING!" He nipped a lock of the blonde hair that lay on her shoulder between his fingers and studied it closely before beaming at her with unbridled joy. "And it's NATURAL, too!"

"Nii-san, stop it," Yuki commanded from between gritted teeth. "Leave her alone."

"Yes, Ayame, leave off," Shigure said lazily, ambling into the room. "The two lovebirds were clearly doing some—" his gaze flicked to the ledger on the table – "close calculations before we arrived."

The man, Ayame, looked near-crazed with delight. "HOW ADORABLE!" he shouted. "Ahahaha! Yes, Yuki dear, be a PRUDENT AND CAREFUL account-keeper, like your treasured OLDER BROTHER! Why, I spend HOURS A WEEK toiling over my accounts, and—"

He blathered on at length, to everyone's varying horror and amusement, but Uo couldn't stop looking at Yuki. Her "husband" looked on the verge of killing his brother, shame and discomfort clear on his beautiful face, and she realized she couldn't stand seeing it.

Uo stepped up to Ayame, bringing her face very near his own, and glared. They were the same height, and her rangy athleticism made his slender svelteness seem infinitely fragile. Breakable, even. Immediately, he quieted, mouth working silently in surprise.

"Don't you ever see anything but yourself? You're embarrassing him," she growled. "So shut up, or I'll pound you." And she stared at him, putting all the menace she could– which was quite a lot, really-- into it, until his mouth shut with an audible click.

Then she was whirled about, and pulled from the room by a hand on her arm; Yuki had grabbed her elbow and was now guiding her out the fusuma door to the garden. Uo's mind caught up quickly, and she managed to slam the door behind her as she tripped along after him.

"What're you— where are we going? Yuki?"

But he didn't answer until they were a good hundred yards from the house, where after a shocked moment of silence everyone had begun talking at once.

He stopped, his back to her, and her eyes widened in dismay when she saw his shoulders shaking. _Oh, crap,_ she thought. _He's not crying, is he?_ She just realized that perhaps she'd done something terribly wrong, in confronting Ayame.

"Yuki, I'm sorry—"

He turned to her then, and she was startled into cutting off her words at the sight of his face: there were tears in his eyes, but from the huge smile on his lips, it was clear they were from laughter.

"That— that was the best thing I've ever seen," he wheezed, swiping the back of his hands over his eyes, then giggled some more. "You don't know how long I've wanted to see someone get Ayame to shut up."

"You're not mad?" Uo grinned, then, hugely relieved. "I was worried, for a second."

"Worried?" Yuki huffed, arms around his waist to relieve the laughter-cramps he was starting to get. "I was hoping he'd keep on, so you _would_ pound him."

"Is he always that awful?" she asked after a moment, curious. "He's like the total opposite of you."

That seemed to sober Yuki, and his smile gradually faded. "No," he said after a bit, "he's not always like that. Just mostly."

His eyes were watching her intently, and a current of something a little confusing to Uo passed between them. Her own smile faded in the wake of it, and she suddenly acutely felt the solitude of where they stood in the woods.

"Thank you," he said suddenly. "For sticking up for me."

She scoffed and looked away, embarrassed. "It was something anyone would do," she muttered.

"Except that no one ever has," Yuki countered. He reached out and touched her arm to get her to look at him, and nodded in response to the look of disbelief she shot him. "No, really. Apart from Hatori, no one has ever been able to shut Ayame up before. When he gets started, nothing stops him. But you did."

He smiled at her again, his head tilted a little to one side. It transformed his face was handsome to ethereal, and seemed to lift a wealth of some deep sorrow from his features.

And Uo was filled with an enormous amount of pride, because _she_ had done that— _she_ had defended him, _she_ had made him happy, _she_ had put that smile on his face. A true, happy, open smile, for her and no one else. Something trembled inside her, and she felt colour rushing to her cheeks.

Then Tohru crashed through the bushes around them, her hair disheveled and her eyes wide. Behind her, Kyou was frowning and looking disgruntled.

"Oh, good!" she exclaimed. "Are you two okay? I was so worried about you back there!" She fairly vibrated with concern until Kyou placed his hand atop her head, and she visibly calmed, leaning back against him a little.

"We're fine," Yuki told her, turning a fainter version of that glorious smile her way. "I was just telling Uotani-san what a good friend she is." Uo was glad for the darkness of the woods around them as she blushed furiously.

"Yes, isn't she?" Tohru agreed happily, beaming at them. "Thank you for defending Yuki-san, Uo-chan!" And she bowed to Uo.

"Stop that," Uo mumbled, staring at the ground.

Kyou gave a little huff of impatience. "You can come back to the house now," he said. "I made everyone go away." He grabbed Tohru's hand and led her away.

"Shall we go finish our assignment?" Yuki asked Uo, and likewise held out his hand, laughing a little.

She nodded, flushing. Then she took his hand and let him guide her through the trees toward the cheerfully lit-up little house.


	5. Chapter 5

** Author's Note: **I'm so glad youall are enjoying my take on possible Uotani/Yuki! I was worried you'd hate it. Thanks for your reviews!**  
**

**Blue Heaven**

"Where the Roses Bloom"

"Our very own triple bridal shower!" Uo crowed as she entered the house with Hanajima, toeing off her shoes and dumping her duffle-bag of things in the entry. "And only four months late!"

"It's really more of a regular sleepover party than a bridal shower," Tohru protested, following them into the living room where Shigure, Yuki, and Kyou were seated around the kotatsu.

Hanajima gracefully seated herself between Yuki and Shigure and helped herself to the plate of snacks on the table. "Especially since we won't be giving each other gifts of lingerie," she commented.

There was a beat of silence, during which the boys' eyes flicked (completely against their owners' wills) toward the girls and their imaginations kicked into overdrive. Then Yuki and Kyou turned away, blushing fiercely.

Not Shigure, however. Smirking, he just ducked his head behind his ever-present paperback novel and began humming a tune that sounded suspiciously like his all-time favourite, "High School Girls". And then he whimpered when two hands from either side smacked him up the head.

"Filthy dog," muttered Yuki, while Kyou intoned, "Disgusting pervert." Apparently, it's fine to _have_ naughty thoughts as long as you don't _admit_ to them.

"Who else is coming?" Hanajima inquired. "Didn't I hear you say you'd invited the Sohma girls?"

Tohru nodded happily. "Rin, Kagura, and Kisa. They all said they'd come!" She clasped her hands to her chest in joy. "This is going to be so fun! I just know you'll all become close friends!"

Thinking of Kagura's volatile nature, Kisa's shy timidity, and Rin's sudden mood swings, the Sohmas collectively found that highly doubtful.

Just try telling Tohru that, though. She was already bouncing to the door to answer the ringing bell, returning shortly with the Sohma females in tow. Kisa and Rin hung back a little, but Kagura's face was lit up with joy.

"Look!" she exclaimed, hoisting a large case of gaudy, pearlescent pink plastic. "I brought my entire cosmetic kit! We can give each other makeovers! This will be the First Official Honda-Sohma Day of Ultimate Beauty!"

Hanajima looked up with the first spark of interest she'd shown that day. "Hair," she said distinctly. "We can do each other's hair."

"And I made Isuzu bring most of her wardrobe, we can try her things on to see how we look in hoochie-mama clothes!" Kagura enthused, wincing a moment later when her cousin pinched her arm. "Admit it," she said sullenly. "You don't exactly dress like a nun, Isuzu."

The boys' eyes once more glazed over at the idea of the girls in Rin's skimpy, daring outfits, and blushed brightly again but their hands, poised dangerously close to Shigure's head, reminded him to hold his tongue.

"Ahaha!" said Tohru nervously, stepping between the two cousins and smiled brightly, hoping to defuse the situation before it got ugly. "Now that everyone's here, let's go upstairs, okay?"

"Always the diplomat, our little flower!" Shigure said, starry-eyed as he gazed up at the girls, then continued recklessly. "You should give us a fashion show, once you start trying on Rin's clothes. It would be a tragedy to allow such exquisite feminine pulchritude to go unseen—"

He was cut off by twin blows to the head, and fell silent as he rubbed his injury, face dramatically pained.

Upstairs, everyone changed into something more comfortable (shorty pajamas being the outfit of choice for all but Rin and Hana, who preferred brief black lacy things that rather scared Tohru), and they started in on their various beautification rituals. Step Number One: fingernails.

"I know!" exclaimed Kagura. "Let's all describe our first kiss!" She closed her eyes and clasped her hands to her chest. "Mine was Kyou, of course. It wasn't very fun, because I had to tackle him and he didn't kiss me back at all, but our lips touched!" She waved a fist in the air for emphasis. "It counted!"

"And how about your first kiss with a _willing_ victim?" asked Uo with a smirk.

Kagura settled down and went back to polishing her nails. "Oh, that would be Ritsu," she answered calmly, seeming unaware of the stares she received from three of the other five girls.

"Ritsu? You kissed _Ritsu_?" Kisa was alarmed at the concept of the timid monkey and the forceful boar.

"You didn't hurt him, did you?" Tohru asked worriedly, apparently just as apprehensive.

Kagura airily waved a hand newly adorned with Plum Passion. "Not at all. It was very nice." Her eyes gleamed at the memory. "We were walking in the main garden at the Honke, and the sun was on his hair so he looked even prettier than usual, so I just leaned over and kissed him."

She laughed. "He seemed so surprised, but when I stopped, he grabbed me and kissed me back! And was really good at it!" Her face turned a little dreamy. "Of course, he apologized for it longer than the amount of time he kissed me, so I kissed him again to shut him up, and we ended up making out for almost an hour."

Rin stared at her. "When was this?" she demanded.

"A month ago. We've seen each other, or spoken on the phone for hours, every night since then."

"That sounds much as if you're dating him, then," Hanajima commented, not looking up from where she stroked Divine Aubergine on her own nails. "Your electric signals are that of a girl in extreme infatuation."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Rin griped, scowling. "We lived together. We're practically sisters. You have a duty to share this sort of thing with me."

Kagura shot her a cool glance. "Oh, like you told me about Haru?" She tossed her hair back over her shoulder and took Tohru's free hand, beginning to paint her nails Coral Parfait (in spite of the fact that Kisa was doing her other hand in Ruby Glisten). "My reasons for keeping it secret are the same as yours."

"Then why say anything to us now?" Rin grumbled, and looked ready to continue when Tohru, stretched between two cousins, interrupted.

"Okay, so, Rin-chan!" she said brightly. "Your first kiss was Hatsuharu, right!"

Rin nodded, her expression somehow sullen and misty with nostalgia at the same time. "But that's over now," she added darkly.

Tohru nodded too, nervously. "Uo-chan!" she exclaimed. "Have you been kissed?"

Uo shrugged and leaned back on her hands. "Sure," she answered easily. "I think I was twelve. No, eleven. It was a kid from another gang, nicer than most of them. Older. Thirteen, maybe, but he didn't know what he was doing any more than I did."

She grinned suddenly. "Slobbered all over me, and I pushed him away and told him he had to get better or I'd never kiss him again. So he did, and we spent the whole summer sneaking away whenever we could, kissing each other stupid."

Uo looked thoughtful for a moment. "Haven't seen him since I left the gang. Wonder how he's doing…"

"My first kiss was from an older cousin," Hana offered then. "But it was over quickly. I scarcely remember it." She did not elaborate.

There were two left, both blushing furiously.

"Tohru-chan, tell us about your first kiss," Kagura urged. "I bet it's a sweet story."

"It, um, er, really isn't anything to tell!" she protested, panicking. "Mostly because it hasn't happened! But that's ok, it's not weird or anything, because Kisa's with me. Right, Kisa?" She turned to the little girl beside her. "You haven't been kissed yet either, right?"

Kisa's face flamed. "Er," she whispered. "Hiro… it's nice…"

Silence fell. Then Rin spoke up. "Tohru, you're sixteen and you haven't been kissed yet? By anyone?"

Tohru blinked. Even the eleven-year-old had been kissed, and she hadn't? She felt stupid, and clumsy, and ugly, all at the same time.

"Well," Tohru began to babble, "of course I've been kissed by my mother, and Hana-chan and Uo-chan have kissed me on the cheek before, and I'm sure my father must have kissed me. Before he died, that is, and— _why are you all staring at me like that_?"

"Because we can't believe that, living with three men, two of whom are clearly in love with you, you haven't been kissed yet," Kagura stated. "It seems unlikely."

"Whaaat?" Tohru was clearly on her way to the emotional equivalent of Defcon 4. "Two of them are what? How? Which two? Oh, Mom!" Her gaze latched frantically on the framed photo on her dresser.

They all stared at her again. A blush scalded over her face and down her throat. She looked miserable.

"Just one is in love with her," Hana declared. "Yuki's interests lie elsewhere, though there is no doubting his devotion to you, Tohru-chan. But Kyou-kun…" She gazed out the window, seeming to concentrate on something.

"Yeah, Carrot-Top's got it for you bad, Tohru," Uo confirmed with a nod. "You'd have to be blind not to see it." Then she glanced over at Hana. "Who's the Prince pining after?"

Tohru's heart felt like it was beating far too fast and hard. "He… I…" Her voice was high and thin, and her eyes were huge. Fortunately, she was saved from having to say anything of actual substance by a knock on the door, which opened to reveal Shigure with a plate in his hand.

"I was just wondering if any of you lovely young women were hungry," he said smoothly, eyes roaming avidly over where they sat around Tohru's low square table. He was disappointed to see that none of them were wearing any of Rin's clothes (except for Rin, of course) until he realized they were all clad in brief sets of shorty pajamas, and his plummeting mood soared once more. And no, that wasn't Freudian symbolism. Well, much.

The snacks were met with great enthusiasm (and relief on Tohru's part); his presence, not so much. Kisa asked for something to drink, and Tohru leapt to her feet.

"No, Shigure-san, I'll get it!" she exclaimed. "You're so nice to bring the snacks up to us!"

"Not at all, my little flower," he replied easily, ambling down the stairs after her. Those shorty pajamas were well worth playing the butler, in his opinion.

Kyou was in the kitchen when Tohru entered, and glanced at her from where he was chugging milk from the carton. She immediately blushed crimson, ducked her head, and scurried to the cabinet where the glasses were kept.

The atmosphere in the room immediately seemed to thicken, and she just _knew_ he was watching her, head perhaps cocked to one side in curiosity at her behaving weirdly yet again. It was so cute when he did that, and his eyes would gleam a certain way, and—

_Safe thoughts! _she admonished herself, aware her hands were shaking as she arranged the glasses on a tray. Taking a deep breath, she went to the refrigerator to get a bottle of juice for her guests upstairs.

"Tohru, what's wrong with you?" Kyou asked. His voice was closer than she'd expected; he must be right behind her! With a faint yelp, she tried to spring away only to find him putting his hands on the counter on either side of her, hemming her in.

"No running away until you tell me what's going on," he said, brows drawing together in concern. "Are Kagura and Rin fighting?"

Kagura… Rin… she heard their voices in her head, asking about kissing, and Uo telling her that Kyou cared for her. Her gaze dropped to his mouth, and she found herself watching it avidly as he spoke, and even after he stopped. He was so close, just then, and had a _marvelous_ mouth, she realized: his lips were well-shaped, pale pink and soft-looking. She bet it would feel so nice, to kiss him, and wondered what it was like to do one of those French kisses she saw on TV and in the movies.

"Safe thoughts!" she wailed, pressing her fists to the sides of her head and shaking it furiously, hair flailing out in all directions.

Peeking up after her exclamation, she saw him staring down at her in utter perplexment. His eyes, a lovely warm brown, were concerned as he narrowed them, clearly trying to translate Tohru-ese into a normal human language.

"Safe thoughts?" Kyou repeated slowly. "As opposed to unsafe thoughts?" He had no idea what sort of unsafe things Tohru of all people could possibly be thinking about. But she was looking at him weirdly again, like she was staring at his chin or his nose.

He wondered if there were a surreptitious way he could brush his hand over those features to be sure he hadn't dripped milk on himself somehow, but he rather found himself reluctant to move from where his arms were caging her in like this. It was nearly an embrace, and if he stepped a little closer, he'd be almost pressed up against her, and she was so small and dainty and she smelled like vanilla and berries and were those shorty pajamas she was wearing?

_Safe thoughts,_ he thought with a mental groan, suddenly understanding the value of the reminder and stepping away. There was very little he enjoyed so much as Tohru staring up at him with those huge eyes of hers, and he couldn't seem to stop staring at her mouth.

It all clicked, then; her words, where she was looking, and what her words meant. The idea that Tohru might want to kiss Kyou was a prospect he hadn't ever had any faith in. He wanted to kiss her, certainly; had imagined it thousands of times in thousands of places but never dreamed of indulging in the fantasy that she could be as willing and eager as he.

It went beyond the normal self-doubt of a teen boy, beyond even any inferiority he might feel in comparison to his princely cousin and rival, and went all the way to the bone-deep certainty instilled in him from his youth that he was unworthy of being wanted and loved.

It would never happen. His hope was fated to end in disappointment; no matter how Kyou trained and tried, he still couldn't defeat Yuki, still had to be imprisoned after graduation, still had no chance of a life of freedom and any scrap of joy he could scavenge for himself.

It was impossible.

The hopelessness of it tore through him, and he stepped away from her, averting his gaze. "If you've got a problem, you can always tell me. I'll help you if I can. You know that."

"I know that," she agreed softly, all tension and distress seeming to have vanished. "Thank you, Kyou-kun."

"S'nothing," he muttered, and ambled out of the kitchen.

Tohru sighed. Something had happened there, some thought had made his features light with hope, though just for a too-short moment until something else had forced it away, made his face seem to snap closed, anger and despair flashing across it before he managed to school it to an approximation of blandness.

She wanted to take away all his pain and loneliness, wanted him to share it all with her so he was drained of anything bad and had only good things to think about. But her mom had always told her that life was full of suffering, and people were in charge of their own happiness. If Kyou didn't want to be rid of his sadness, there wasn't anything Tohru could do to make that happen for him.

So she sighed again, and brought the tray of juice and glasses upstairs to her guests. They tried teasing her a little more about Kyou, and kissing, and she smiled and laughed with them, but she had other things on her mind now, more important things than being embarrassed over her own inability to get a boy to kiss her.

"You… live with Kasuma-dono?" Hana was asking Rin. Her face was blank, as always, but there was an oddly hostile note to her voice. And was that a streak of sparks zipping over her head…?

Rin frowned at the odd girl, darting a look at Kagura. "Yes, he's a good friend to all of us."

"A friend…" Hana seemed to be tasting the word in her mouth, she paused so long. Then she nodded. "Very well. I can accept that he allows his friends to stay with him, as long as that is all that it is."

"Hana thinks she's in love with him," Uo explained to the Sohma girls.

"Has she ever even _met_ him?" Kagura demanded, skeptical. "I really doubt Shishou would go for it. Isn't he twice her age?"

Hana returned to putting Kisa's hair in tiny butterfly clips all around her face, and gave an elegant shrug. "His waves indicate he rather likes that I'm half his age," she commented.

The Sohmas looked somewhat disturbed; even Uo was a bit unnerved. Tohru just sighed a third time and started to polish her toenails. Some things even she could recognize as being beyond hope.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Thank you for your kind reviews! I'm so happy you're enjoying this story, I never thought it would get so popular!

**Blue Heaven**

"A Cozy Room"

Yuki wondered why he was feeling a little nervous as he climbed the stairs toward Uotani Arisa's apartment. He wiped his damp palms against the legs of his trousers for the third time in as many minutes, and hoped his anxiety wouldn't show.

Hanajima's family had gone away for the weekend, and that had left Yuki and Uo at a loss for where they could work on their Family Life project. Tohru had invited them to Shigure's, but behind her, Kyou had glowered so fiercely that Uotani-san just laughed and said they'd use her place.

"But you can't come over right away," she'd informed Yuki. "Give me an hour to make sure it's up to snuff, okay?"

So here he was, an hour later, standing in the shabby hallway of her apartment building before her scuffed door, hand raised to knock but somehow failing to. He'd spent the hour oddly distracted by thoughts of the last instance they'd spent any time alone together— the time his brother had introduced himself and gotten threatened for his troubles by an irate Uotani.

It was only the second time he could remember laughing that hard, and it felt cleansing, like a good portion of darkness had been lifted from his soul. The idea that someone would fight for him made him feel almost giddy, like he actually mattered to someone, was perhaps worth something.

It felt a little odd, feeling this comfortable with a girl who wasn't Honda-san, but he supposed he had to loosen up eventually, and why not with Uotani-san? He enjoyed her company—she had a fine, wry sense of humour that he appreciated, and a strength and loyalty he admired. She'd already proven herself an excellent friend to Honda-san. Perhaps she could be equally a friend to him?

The idea made hope flash through him, and spurred him to run a hand over his hair, smoothing it a last time, before nodding in determination and knocking.

When Uo opened the door, her own hair was straggling out of the hasty knot on her head, and her face was flushed from exertion. Yuki thought she looked very pretty.

"There you are!" she said breathlessly, waving him in. "I was beginning to think you'd chickened out." Her grin was so engaging that Yuki didn't take offense, and instead found himself smiling back at her. "Here, let me take that."

She took his backpack from him and led him into the tiny living room, where there was a low table with her school things already spread out.

"Have a seat," she said, gesturing to the table. "Want something to drink?"

"Some juice, if you have it," he replied, sitting at the table and beginning to unpack his bag.

She disappeared into the kitchen, and Yuki studied the room around him. The walls badly wanted painting, the carpet was worn, and the furniture had seen better days a decade ago. At the same time, the place was spotless, and there were little touches here and there that spoke of Uotani-san's personality— a framed photo of her, Hanajima, and Tohru; a print of a red butterfly on the wall over the sofa; a sad little bouquet of fresh flowers on the table before the window—

Wait. _Fresh_ flowers? Yuki stood and went to inspect them. Up close, he could see they were the bedraggled type sold in convenience stores, the edges of the petals already turning brown, and there was still a little tag around the stem of one advising how best to care for them.

_She must not have had time to do more than plunk them into a vase when she got home, _he thought, and his mind's eye clearly imagined Uotani rushing around her little apartment, tidying up in preparation for her guest.

It was normal to want to clean one's home before a visitor came, but there was no need for flowers, especially on her limited budget. And yet, for him, she'd splurged on this pathetic little bunch of half-wilted blooms… Yuki's throat closed up as a rush of emotion overcame him. Suddenly, everything about this girl just seemed to overwhelm him.

He so often though of how horrible his life was, as a cursed Sohma, that he lost sight of the fact that other people had it rough, too. In spite of being fundamentally poor, living in a bad neighborhood, lacking a mother and having a lush for a father, Uotani was strong and brave and loyal. She had defended him, and gone to such a length to pretty up her home, just for him.

"Yuki-san?" Her voice was uncertain, with a hint of worry hovering at the edge. "Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

"No," he said, but it came out strangely. He couldn't take his eyes away from the flowers.

Beside him, she saw where he was looking and smirked. "Oh, those. Not the prettiest, are they?" Uotani-san picked up the cheap, chipped vase and cocked her head as she studied the bouquet. "It was all they had, and I wanted to make the place a little nicer for you. I know you're used to better things than this."

By the time she stopped speaking, her cheeks were rosy, and she was avoiding eye contact with him.

"No," Yuki repeated, but this time, it came out clearly. His reached out a finger and stroked the tip over a petal, feeling the softness against the sensitive pad, and said, "They're beautiful."

Uotani-san gave a snort of laughter, which swiftly faded when she realized he wasn't joking. "Yuki-san, you're acting pretty weird. What's going on?"

He looked over at her, and saw that with the late afternoon light streaming in the window, she was silhouetted in a nimbus of gold. Holding her gaze, he said, "They might be the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen."

Her eyes were enormous, and seeming to grow larger still. Yuki was a little confused by that until he saw that it was because her face was actually coming closer to him. By the time he realized what it signified, she had touched her mouth to his and was kissing him.

He stared for a long, agonized moment, shocked. Her eyes were closed, now, and she slanted her head a little to be able to move her lips against his in a different way. It felt warm, and soft, and better than almost anything else ever had.

Yuki grasped her shoulders and gently put her from him. She opened her eyes and met his gaze, a thoughtful expression on her face. She was blushing faintly, but there was no shadow of shame or disgust in her eyes, so Yuki leaned forward and kissed her, this time.

He was glad for his hands on her shoulders when she stepped closer and would have pressed herself to his chest, and he kept her that crucial inch away, but slid one hand down to her waist while the other moved around to cup the back of her head. Then she opened her mouth, her tongue brushing lightly against his lips, and an involuntary groan escaped him.

"Uotani-san," he gasped against her mouth.

"Arisa," she murmured, lapping gently at his lower lip as she slid her hands up his chest to tangle in his hair. "Call me Arisa."

"Arisa-san," he complied, trying again, but she took advantage of his open mouth to kiss him again, her tongue this time reaching within to taste him.

The curve of her waist burned beneath his hand, and his chest ached with the urge to pull her against him, hard, to feel her press all along his body. Uotani's— no, _Arisa's_— fingers were rubbing idle circles against his scalp, and she was rubbing her tongue along his in a long, languid caress, and he felt like the top of his head was about to come off.

Slowly, tenderly, she drew out the kiss, withdrawing only gradually until they were exchanging moist little pecks and nibbles at each other's lips. When she pulled back at last, her face was soft and her eyes were a luminous blue. Yuki wondered how many other people she had allowed to see her like this, and marveled that he was one of them.

"Was that your first kiss?" she asked him quietly.

Yuki nodded, a little embarrassed. "But, er, not yours?" he ventured. She'd been so good at it, it couldn't possibly have been.

"No," she agreed, then grinned. "But for what it's worth, that just blew all the other ones away."

He found himself grinning back. "It was a good one," he said, amazed at how comfortable he felt at that moment. Surely, he should have been fairly frantic to explain… something, or flee. But instead, he was actually rather relaxed and wanting nothing more than to kiss her again. "I don't know how any future kisses are going to be able to measure up."

"Well, not everyone has the skills that I do," Arisa-san joked, studying her fingernails in mock nonchalance.

"Then I'd better just stick to kissing you," he replied just as easily, wondering where on _earth_ the words were coming from.

The playfulness faded from her face. "I'm up for it if you are," she said quietly, her head downturned, as if dreading his response.

A flash of panic speared through Yuki, side-by-side with longing. "There are some things you have to know, first. You might not want to… get so close to me, once you know."

Her face came together in a smirk, and he knew she was about to say something mocking about what could possibly be wrong with Prince Yuki, but the seriousness of his expression seemed to make her pause. Her skepticism melted into concern, and she took his hands in her own.

He could feel the roughness of them against his palms, and was reminded that she worked— not one, but two jobs— to make ends meet. Again, his heart gave a little skip of admiration for her.

"So, tell me already," she commanded, her voice low. "What could possibly be so horrible that it could make me not want to date you?"

Yuki swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat. "I can't tell you everything, because it's a very important family secret. But I can say that we can't ever hold each other. Hug," he clarified when her brows knit, puzzled. "If our chests touch, something bad will happen."

She was having trouble understanding, but he felt it was to her credit that she nodded eventually, accepting that.

"Okay," Arisa-san said slowly. "Is that all? Because, yes, that will stink but—"

"There's more," he interrupted, smiling slightly to take the sting out of it. "We can't tell anyone that we're together. Maybe Honda-san and Kyou, and Hanajima-san if you feel we can trust her not to let _anyone_ know, but—"

His words trailed away as he saw her come to a comprehension he wasn't sure he'd intended, and the soft light in her eyes became a flashing hardness.

"Oh," she said flatly, and the anger made her face gloriously alive. "I see. Prince Yuki can't be known to associate with the Yankee, is that it? A former gang member, with no money or class or—"

He kissed her, threading his fingers through her hair and holding her still, trying to convey to her what his words hadn't been able to. When he pulled away, he nuzzled his forehead against her cheek and searched desperately for a way to explain.

"It's not that, not at all," he said lamely. "You don't know how proud I am to walk beside you in public." He looked up in time to see the shock on her face. "But… I have a relative in the Sohmas, a very important relative." He spoke quickly, so that his courage didn't falter. "He is very jealous of the rest of us, and won't let us have relationships.

"I know you don't understand," he continued. "Why we don't rebel. But you just have to accept that we can't. We _can't_ go against him. He has ways of making us obey him. So… so, Arisa-san, if he finds out that I care for you, he would forbid me to see you, and I would not be able to go against him."

He could not bring himself to utter his greatest fear, that Akito would harm her, or command Hatori to erase her memories of him.

"So, that's the horrible thing. Do you still want to date me?"

Arisa stared at him a long moment before saying, "If we can't tell anyone, it won't be much like dating, will it?"

Yuki tamped down the elation that rose up within him. "Well," he began, but she cut him off.

"It explains why you always stay so far away from all the girls who chase you," she said. "I'd always wondered why. Thought you might be gay." She grinned cheekily at him, then, before sobering. "As long as you're not keeping it a secret because you're ashamed of me, then I don't care about any of that."

She carefully put her arms around his neck, keeping her chest away from his, and pressed her forehead to his.

"Thank you," he whispered, almost unbearably touched by her acceptance of the terms she had to come to in order to be with him. Yuki's arms went around her in turn, and they stood there, almost-embracing-but-not, for a long moment. "Thank you."

She pulled back and looked up at him with glimmering eyes. "Kiss me again, and we'll call it even."


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** I'm SO HAPPY that my Uo/Yuki pairing is working! I think they're perfect together, even if I'm the only one who loves them as a couple. Thanks for all your kind reviews :)

**Blue Heaven, Chapter Seven**

"Evening Is Nigh" 

Kyou hadn't wanted the rat and his class partner to join them, but it had been over a month since they'd begun studying together at the Yankee's apartment and Tohru, missing them both, had asked Kyou so sweetly that he found himself agreeing before he really knew what had happened.

"This is so nice!" Tohru enthused when the four of them were settled around the kotatsu and had been poring over their respective books for a few hours. Shigure had gone to the Honke and wouldn't be back, he said, until well after dinnertime.

"I'm glad you were able to convince the stupid cat," Yuki replied, slanting a look at Kyou. "I don't know what he's so worked up about, having people in the room while you're studying; it's not like you're doing anything else, right?"

Kyou felt a muscle in his eyelid start to twitch, and his hands gripped his knees as he fought to keep his temper, as he'd promised Tohru he would.

Tohru frowned as she tried to puzzle it out. "No, just studying," she said, sounding lost. "Kyou's been so good to help me with the trigonometry, I'd never have gotten it without him!"

"I know what you mean," Uotani replied with a smirk. "There's no way I'd have passed the last physics exam without Yuki." And she leaned to the side to nudge him with her elbow, her head falling for just a moment to his shoulder.

"You would have done fine without me," Yuki demurred, smiling down at her and brushing his hand over her knee. "I just explained it a little differently, is all."

Uotani shot him a mock-glower. "You're always so modest," she complained, waggling a finger in his face. "Why not accept the praise you deserve? There's nothing wrong with receiving compliments. You're good at so many things, after all."

There was an odd quality to her tone of voice, like she was implying something past the face value of the words, that had even the oblivious Tohru peering closely at the two. Kyou had noticed in the past few weeks how comfortable his cousin seemed with the Yankee, but attributed it to the Family Life class—they were bound to get to know each other, perhaps even become friends, after working so closely for so long.

But now, he saw, it seemed to have progressed beyond that point. They were looking at and touching each other far more often than mere friendship warranted, and if he weren't mistaken, there was a distinctly flirtatious lilt to both of their voices when they addressed each other, more often than not.

The most damning evidence of all was Tohru; as Yuki and Uotani traded banter back and forth, her gaze was flicking back and forth between them with a growing expression of delight spreading across her features. She knew both of them very well; if she was suspecting something between them, Kyou was willing to bet she was right.

"So," he said gruffly, shooting a grin at Tohru, "how long have you two been dating?"

They both froze, at the same time and in practically the same position, as twin expressions of shock and embarrassment crept over their faces.

"We— we're not—" Yuki protested faintly, going quite pale, while Uotani went with the "best defense is an offense" approach and slammed her fist down on the table, leaning across it to glare furiously at Kyou.

"You idiot!" she yelled. "What a stupid question, why would you even think—"

"Uotani-chan," Tohru interrupted gently, "you _are_ dating Yuki-kun, aren't you?"

Uotani visibly deflated; she might be able to be rude to Kyou (in fact, she enjoyed it greatly) but Tohru was a different story. Saying nothing, she looked Yuki's way and exchanged a long, meaningful glance with him. Yuki gave a tiny nod, and Uotani sighed.

"Yeah," she said at last. "We're dating, if you call studying together all the time 'dating'. Having to keep it a secret sort of restricts where we're able to go together."

Tohru launched herself at her friend, tackling her in a hug so enthusiastic they both tumbled over to the floor. "I'm so happy!" Tohru shrieked.

"Get off of me, you lunatic," Uotani grumbled, pushing Tohru off, but she too was smiling stupidly.

Tohru's next target was Yuki; she grabbed his hand and clasped it between both of her own, gazing earnestly at him with shining eyes. "Oh, Yuki-kun, I'm so happy for you! Uotani-chan is a wonderful girl, I know you'll be happy together!"

Yuki's colour had returned with a vengeance; blushing furiously, he glanced over at where Uotani was still sprawled across the floor. "Er, yes, I know," he said. "Thank you."

"But why didn't you tell us?" Tohru asked, looking back over her shoulder at Kyou. "I think I know why you don't want a lot of people to know-- Akito-sama won't like it, right? But you know you can trust us, don't you?"

She looked close to tears that two of her closest friends didn't think her trustworthy. Kyou glowered at them for making her feel bad.

"It's not that, Honda-san," Yuki hurried to say, patting her hands with his free one. "We just didn't want to involve anyone; we wanted you be able to say truthfully that you didn't know anything about it, if we were discovered."

The worry lifted from Tohru's face, replaced by a luminous smile. "Yuki-kun is always so considerate," she announced.

"Yeah, ain't he?" Uotani agreed, shooting a grin her boyfriend's way. "Keeps giving me flowers. I don't have a single bare surface in my apartment anymore— flowers everywhere. And when I run out of vases, he buys me another one."

Tohru squealed, clapping her hands with glee. "I always knew Yuki-kun would be romantic!" she enthused.

Kyou was feeling distinctly nauseous by this point. "Enough already," he muttered. "I can't take any more of this."

"That's fine," Yuki said coolly, standing and holding out his hand to help Uotani to her feet. "We were hoping to have dinner out, and maybe see a movie."

"Oh, so you _do_ go out!"

Yuki nodded. "If we have time, we take the train to the other side of the city, where we don't know anyone."

"Sometimes we wear hats," Uotani said with a smirk as she headed for the foyer. "Yuki's big with the cunning disguises."

As Uotani put on her shoes, Tohru pulled Yuki aside. "Does she know about the curse?" she whispered.

"Only that I can't hold her," Yuki replied, just as quietly. "I haven't explained why. But she knows that Akito wouldn't approve, and that's why it has to be kept a secret."

"I'm so sorry for you," Tohru told him sadly, at normal volume. "You must want to hug each other a lot. Not being able to must be so hard!"

"It stinks," Uotani said flatly, popping her head around the corner. "But we're learning to make do." And she flashed Yuki a grin so lecherous that it had Yuki, Tohru, and even Kyou blushing scarlet in under three seconds.

Yuki coughed and went to put on his own shoes. Tohru trailed behind them, firing questions. Finally, shoes on and books packed, they left, and Kyou was left alone with her.

There was a dense, dissatisfied lump of fury firmly lodged in his belly. All that shitty rat had to do was deal with avoiding being hugged by his girlfriend, and if the way the Yankee had looked at his cousin was any indication, she wasn't going to be too upset when she learned her boyfriend turned into an animal. Uotani seemed the type to take almost anything in stride.

For Kyou, however, it was a different— _hopeless_-- matter. He knew Tohru didn't care about his being a cat, or even a monster; but the cage that awaited him upon graduation loomed, omnipresent, in his mind. It was a relentless spectre, always haunting him.

It was wrong to try to build something with her; bad enough she'd be upset when he was locked away, as just his friend. But Kyou _knew_ Tohru; when she loved, it was completely, with everything that she was. If they became romantic, his incarceration would devastate her. He couldn't bear to be the one to doom her to it, by instigating a deepening of their relationship.

If he were smart, or strong, he'd have left Shigure's house years ago, as soon as she began to really matter to him. But he wasn't either of those things, apparently, because he'd stayed, and had fallen more and more in love with her until it sometimes felt like his very soul was entangled with hers. To pull them apart would kill him, he was sure of it.

He went to fetch her. She was standing on the threshold of the open front door, still waving energetically as Uotani and Yuki rounded the bend in the path.

"Come inside," he said, placing his hand on her shoulder. She was so slight, her bones seeming incredibly fragile, and it just reinforced his determination to protect her. There was no telling what Akito would do if he found out how much Kyou cared for her. No, it had to stay a secret, hidden even from Tohru herself.

They spent an hour poring over a "human reproduction" textbook, learning exactly what they could expect when Tohru had "their baby". However, phrases like "four-way spontaneous episiotomy" and "clitoral tearing" soon had her muttering, "Adoption. Adoption is a noble and practical solution. There are thousands of children who need good, caring homes…"

They decided a break was in order, after that, and soon were immersed in homework for their other subjects. Well, Kyou was, at least; after about a half-hour, he noticed that Tohru was doing more staring at the wall than studying.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, curious. She had that glazed look in her eye that said she was thinking deep, and doubtlessly bizarre, thoughts that no sane person would have been able to follow.

Tohru whipped her head around to face him, hair flying. "Yes! No! Yes!" she exclaimed.

Kyou sighed. "Which is it?" he asked patiently.

"I was just thinking how sad it is to want to hold the one you love, and not be able to," she said, looking very sad indeed. "The look on Uo-chan's face is very hard to see. And I know it hurts Yuki, as well."

_To hell with Yuki,_ Kyou thought savagely. _What about me?_ He wanted to hold Tohru, so much that sometimes he ached from it. Those split-seconds that he could feel her warmth against him, could close his arms around her before the curse asserted itself and he changed into a cat, counted as some of the most splendid of his life.

"There's nothing you can do about it," he muttered sullenly. "Don't get yourself upset."

"I wonder," she said thoughtfully, staring at the wall once more.

Kyou took the opportunity to watch her. Her hair fell, straight and shiny, over her shoulders. He never could decide what colour it was: too dark for caramel, too light for chocolate. It darkened over the winter, but by the end of summer it was streaked with gold.

She turned to him with a wide, sudden smile. He was startled out of his reverie, and blushed to be caught staring, but she seemed to be too excited to notice or care.

"I've got it!" she declared, pumping one fist into the air as she hopped to her feet.

"Got what?" Kyou asked, mystified, but Tohru was already running out of the room.

"Be right back!"

He heard her footsteps pattering up the stairs and into her bedroom, then back again, and wondered what in the hell she was doing.

"Here!" she exclaimed upon reentry of the room, breathless from her dash. In her arms was the fluffy pink blanket from her bed, most of it trailing behind her on the floor.

Kyou stared. "What are you going to do with that?"

"I want to try an experiment!" She began to fold it, struggling a little until Kyou got to his feet and helped her with it. "Okay! It's in sixteen layers now."

He just blinked. "And?"

"And, we're going to see how few layers we can get down to." She held the folded blanket in front of her torso, then looked hopefully up at Kyou. "Okay, hug me!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **Thanks for all your reviews, and for reading :)**  
**

**Blue Heaven, chapter eight**

Tohru held the folded blanket in front of her torso, then looked hopefully up at Kyou. "Okay, hug me!"

A blush scalded its way over his face. "Huh?"

"Hug me, Kyou-kun!" She adjusted the drape of the blanket over her front. "I want to see how thin a barrier it takes before the curse kicks in!"

Disappointment filled him as he finally understood her sudden desire for his embrace, but the opportunistic part of him leapt at the chance to get to hold her, no matter her motives. He reached out slowly, haltingly, and pulled her close.

The blanket was bulky, and since she had to hold it up her hands were trapped between them, but Kyou couldn't repress his sigh of pleasure. Beneath his hands, her back was narrow and warm, and her hair tickled his nose and cheek as he bent his head toward her. Best of all, there was no _poof!_ He remained human.

"O-- okay," Tohru said at last. Her voice was a little high-pitched. "Let's try just eight layers." Stepping back, she gently disengaged herself from Kyou's arms and unfolded the blanket once before replacing it over her chest. "Ready!"

Kyou wrapped his arms around her again, relishing the extra inch of closeness this brought them. Now he could just touch her ear with his nose, and the tiny caress sent a streak of heat through him. His earlier elation at having an excuse to hug her gave way to a certain feeling of trepidation; being this close to her, being able to smell her hair and feel her skin, was fraught with danger.

Alarmed, he was about to pull back when her arms came around him. Her hands pressed flat against his back, and he found himself squeezed tightly by her.

He sucked in a breath. "Tohru…" he began, but she relaxed against him, going so far as to rest her head on his chest. She was so little, she barely came to his shoulder.

"This— this is nice," she stammered, sounding as nervous as he felt. "Isn't it, Kyou-kun?"

He held her tighter, but didn't trust his voice to say anything, so he just nodded. The motion brushed his lips over her ear, and she shivered against him.

"It's time for the next stage of the experiment," Tohru said quietly after a while. Her hands came to hold up the blanket between them, and she took a step back as Kyou reluctantly released her. She unfolded the blanket again.

"Four layers," she said, not meeting his gaze.

Kyou nodded, and this time didn't hesitate before tugging her into his arms. With less fabric between then, this time he could clearly feel the curvy shape of her breasts against his chest, and swallowed at the distinct twinge of arousal that pinged through him.

"Tohru," he whispered.

"Kyou," she replied, barely audible, but her breath was warm against his throat and her hands started to slide up his chest and over his shoulders. When her arms settled around his neck, she was closer to him than she had ever been, and showing no inclination to move away.

Kyou cautiously pressed a kiss to her soft cheek, every nerve quivering at attention to see what her reaction would be. Tohru positively melted against him, sighing happily and rubbing her cheek against his. Her breath was warm against his ear, and he shuddered at the sensation, hard.

Leaning back, he looked at her. Her face was soft, her eyes dreamy, and he had never wanted to kiss her as much as that moment. Still, something held him back; what if she was just enjoying a hug with him? She hugged Momiji all the time, after all, and her friends, too—

Tohru tried to pull him closer as she lifted her face to his. She _wanted_ him to kiss her? Kyou froze in shock, staring down in a panic of confused desire. Instantly, she perceived his lack of motion as reluctance, and turned brilliantly red.

"Oh," she whispered, and started to extract herself from his embrace. "I though you wouldn't mind—" She looked devastated, her eyes beginning to shine with tears.

"_Mind_?" he said hoarsely. Kyou wanted to kick himself for making her think he wanted to do anything but kiss her for the next several years.

"It's alright if you don't want to—" Her voice sounded strangled, and she was beginning to squirm to get away. A band seemed to have encircled his chest and was squeezing, squeezing…

"I want to," he said. "More than anything." With that, he pressed a desperate kiss to her trembling mouth, needing to convince her.

Her fingers curled slowly in the fabric of his shirt, and her lips moved against his. Slowly, the band released, the fear receded… Kyou's tongue began to explore her mouth, tentatively at first, then with more eagerness until he was kissing her with all the passion in his heart.

Tohru made a sort of mewing sound in her throat, and for a moment he thought he'd pushed her too far, but she clung harder to him and twined her fingers in his hair, forgetting herself to the point of kissing him back with a fervency that astounded him.

Reluctantly, in dire need of air, Kyou ended the kiss. He felt dizzy, elated; seeing her flushed face and swollen lips made his heart want to leap from his chest. He knew he shouldn't say so, shouldn't let this go even further than it had, knew this was a disaster—

"I love you," he said on an exhale, rogue words escaping without his permission.

"Oh, good," Tohru blurted, looking relieved as she opened her eyes. "I'm so glad! Because I love Kyou-kun, too, and I was so worried he wouldn't, and then what would I do?"

His blood was singing through his veins, jubilant that his feelings could be returned by this girl who'd come to mean so much to him. He kissed her again and again; now that he had "permission", he couldn't seem to stop himself.

"Of course I love you," he said when they were both gasping for breath. He couldn't conceive of a way he could have spent the past few years of his life with her and not fallen for her-- there didn't seem to be any alternative to being utterly devoted to her in every way possible. "You're everything to me."

Her eyes were huge, and Kyou thought he could lose himself in them, could drown in them. "I want to be with you forever," she whispered. "No matter what."

But they didn't have forever. The inevitability of Kyou's fate—that of every Sohma cat—hung there between them.

"I…" He hung his head, in shame and despair. The band around his chest was back, clamping relentlessly. "I want that, too."

They clung to each other for long moments, and Kyou felt a wetness against his throat when she nuzzled her cheek against him.

"We'll find a way, Kyou-kun," she said, her voice amazingly firm in spite of her high emotion. "I won't let anyone take you away from me." The famous Honda Tohru resolve was in her voice, and he couldn't help smiling, then reaching out to brush the tears off her cheeks.

"Okay," he said easily, feeling lighter and happier than he could remember ever being. "But first, let's finish up your experiment."

Tohru beamed up at him as she grabbed the blanket. "Three layers!" she said, manipulating the cloth and then holding it up between them.

Kyou's hands covered hers as they held the blanket's corners, and he bent his head to place another kiss on her mouth. Pressed close, they lost themselves in the kiss, and it was a while before they realized he hadn't transformed.

Tohru's face flamed when they parted at last. "I guess that's fine, too," she said shakily, and Kyou grinned.

"Guess so." This time, it was he who unfolded the blanket, bringing the layer count to two.

He held the blanket up, and Tohru stepped eagerly into his embrace, sliding her arms around his waist and burying her face against his chest. They had one moment of bliss before they were enveloped in a cloud of smoke, and Tohru stumbled a little as the body she was leaning against abruptly disappeared.

She sighed and dropped to her knees. "So, three layers is as low as it goes," she said with a faint smile as she lifted him from the pile of clothing. "I bet Yuki-kun and Uo-chan will be so happy to know!"

Kyou said nothing, but squirmed until she set him down. A moment later, he transformed back to his human form, the scowl still on his face. Tohru eeped and spun away from him.

"Are they the only reason you wanted to know?" he asked quietly, when he was dressed once more.

She didn't turn around right away, so Kyou crawled forward on hands and knees to peer around at her face. She was blushing profusely.

"No," she admitted. "I was sad for them, but also for us. I wasn't sure you'd want to be so close to me, but the way you look at me sometimes… it made me think you wouldn't mind, much."

Kyou hated the idea he'd been obvious, but thinking back to various times Momiji, Hatsuharu, and even Yuki had made certain comments, he realized he hadn't been nearly as subtle in hiding his feelings as he'd have liked.

"How do I look at you?" He didn't need her to tell him; he already knew that the sight of her made something soften within him, made the muscles of his face relax. Tohru soothed him like nothing else could.

"The same way I look at you, I think." She tilted her head to the side, her expression grave and sweet. "Like I have all your attention, like we're the only things that exist in the world."

He cupped her face in his trembling hand, eagerly drinking in every nuance.

"Like that," she said, laughing in pure joy. "Just like that."

He bent down to kiss her again, but the moment their lips met, the front door opened with a bang.

"Oopsie!" Shigure sang, his voice echoing off the walls. "I think I might have had a little too much sake." A pause. "Thanks, Tori-san!" The door slammed, and then gravel crunched under tires as Hatori drove away.

Tohru and Kyou, having sprung apart, settled themselves on opposite sides of the kotatsu. By the time Shigure entered the room, both had their noses firmly buried in schoolbooks. Tohru greeted the dog with a smile, but Kyou just glared over the edge of his chemistry text.

"Just the two of you, then?" Shigure inquired, propping himself against the doorjamb. "I thought Yuki and his project partner were coming over."

"Oh, they did," Tohru answered. "But they finished and.. and…" She trailed off, not wanting to reveal they'd gone on a date but not quite able to think up an alternative on the spur of the moment.

"They left not long ago," Kyou said. "Yuki wanted to walk her home, so she wasn't taking the train in the dark."

"Ah," Shigure said, heaving a dramatic sigh after laying his hand over his heart. "Yuki, ever the gallant."

Tohru giggled; Kyou rolled his eyes. "Aren't you home early?" he demanded. "I thought you were having dinner there."

"I was, I was." Shigure plopped down in his seat at the table. "But Ayame and I had some sake, and then some more, and then some more. And then some more. I must have said something to anger Akito, and was told my presence was no longer desired." He gazed mournfully at Tohru. "And now I'm hungry."

She leapt to her feet. "I'm on it!" she declared. "I'll whip up something great for us!"

"I'm sure you will, my little flower," Shigure crooned, craning his neck so he could see further up her skirt from his seated position on the floor. "Ow."

"Keep your eyes to yourself," Kyou growled, eyes glowing as he lowered his fist. "Don't make me have to kill you."

Tohru giggled again— nervously, this time— and scampered into the kitchen. Kyou glared at Shigure until the writer gave a little cough and stood up.

"Perhaps I'll just go do a little work in my office until the food is ready," he said. "That way, Kyou-kun will have even more time alone with our precious Tohru. Ow."

Then it was he scampering away, rubbing the growing lump on the back of his head where Kyou had just kicked him, but there was a slow, sly grin on his face that they couldn't see.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: **I'm so happy my Tohru/Kyou moment worked, thanks for your reviews :)

**Blue Heaven, Chapter 9**

The time came for Tohru to deliver her "baby", and she and Kyou had to roll dice to see if the birth would have complications. Kyou rolled a two, which meant the baby was breech and delivered via Caesarian section. With key phrases like "four-way spontaneous episiotomy" fresh in her mind, Tohru couldn't find it in herself to mind overmuch.

Then she rolled a five, which meant the baby was a boy. When it was all over, Mr. Kurosaki handed them (and the few other student couples who'd been "pregnant") a three-kilo sack of flour and told them they had to treat it like a baby, never leaving it alone a single moment.

"Unbelievable," Kyou muttered, hefting the flour into his free arm at the end of class. "Ridiculous."

"So, what'd you name it?" asked Momiji around a mouthful of lunch, later on. He'd already found a scarf at the bottom of his backpack and wrapped it lovingly around the flour in a rough approximation of a onesie.

"Raidon!" Tohru exclaimed. "Don't you think that's a wonderful name?" She gazed happily around at her friends, not seeming to notice how Kyou had dropped his head in his hands and sighed.

"Sohma Raidon," Hatsuharu said slowly, as if tasting the words, and Momiji giggled. "That's… unique." He turned to Kyou and tilted his head as he studied him. "Though I'm surprised you'd go for calling your son 'thunder god'."

"I like the name," Yuki said, smiling at Tohru, before shooting a sly look at his cousin. "And Kyou, I think he has your eyes."

Kyou mumbled something that could have been either, "wasn't my idea" or perhaps "fuck off, stupid rat" and took a vicious bite of his lunch, stubbornly staring off in the opposite direction. Uotani had already told him the sack of flour "looked just like him" and it hadn't been any funnier then, either.

"Uo-chan, are you free after school today?" Tohru asked her friend. At Arisa's nod, she continued, "Great! Can you come over, then? Kyou and I would like to show something to you and Yuki-kun."

They both seemed a little confused, but Arisa agreed readily enough. At Shigure's that afternoon, then, they watched with wide eyes as Tohru began the folding process with her fluffy blanket.

"Watch this!" she announced, holding the blanket up over her chest. Kyou stepped forward and took her in his arms, tucking her closely against his chest and resting his cheek against her head. Tohru, for her part, slipped her arms around his neck and clung like a limpet, emitting a happy sigh.

After a few moments, Arisa gave a very fake-sounding clearing of her throat. "Happy as I am that you two have finally gotten past all that pesky denial," she drawled, "exactly why is watching you hug interesting for us?"

Rosy-faced, Tohru and Kyou pulled back. "Don't you understand?" Tohru asked, eyes shining with enthusiasm. "I've found a way for the Sohmas to hug us!"

Arisa glanced to Yuki; unlike her, his face was quite serious, and he seemed very interested in this new development.

"Here," Tohru said, shoving the blanket at them. "Start with four, I don't know if it's the same with Yuki-kun as it is with Kyou-kun."

Yuki held up the quadrupled blanket and smiled tentatively at his girlfriend. Arisa returned it with a grin and, rather than merely embracing him, slid her arms around his neck and planted a substantial kiss on his mouth.

Kyou and Tohru watched, gaping, as Yuki (rather than pulling away embarrassedly as they thought he would at such a display) returned her embrace just as fervently.

"Wow, Uo-chan!" Tohru exclaimed after a moment. "It's easy to see how much you care for each other."

That succeeded in interrupting them; Yuki and Arisa pulled apart, blushing slightly. "Now what?" she asked, rubbing the back of her neck. "Three?"

Tohru nodded. "That's as low as Kyou-kun and I got,"

The blanket was rearranged, replaced, and once again, Yuki and Arisa were in each other's arms. This time, instead of a passionate clinch, they were content to simply hold each other close as they had not been able to before. Arisa loved holding him like this; she'd thought they'd never be able to, and the feel of his slim, wiry body against her was like an unexpected gift.

Tohru watched them with a wide smile, hands clasped to her chest in delight. "Look, Kyou-kun!" she said, bouncing on her toes as she turned to him. "It's working for them, too!"

"I can see that," he said acidly, arms folded over his chest as he watched his cousin embrace Arisa. "Can we get moving on this before my entire appetite is ruined?"

Yuki shot him a nasty look over Uo's shoulder, and detached from her. "If three layers is as low as you two were able to go, then I think we should stop there, too."

"All this cloak and dagger mystery would be fun if I could be a part of it, too," Arisa said mildly. She felt distinctly peevish at being the only one of the four unaware of the repercussions of getting too close to Yuki.

Tohru shot her a sympathetic look, but Yuki said, "Trust me, I would if I could, Arisa-san. It's for your own protection." He softened it with a small, hopeful smile, which she grudgingly returned.

"It's not like it's a _good_ secret," Kyou grumbled. "You're not exactly missing out on something wonderful. And—"

He abruptly fell silent as a footstep sounded on the veranda outside. A moment later, the shoji slid open and Shigure entered the room.

"Ah, Tohru!" he exclaimed merrily. "I'm so hungry, after that walk! When are we having dinner?"

"It should be ready just about now!" she answered, spinning to face him. "I'll set the table and serve it as soon as it's done!"

"Good, good," he replied, patting her fondly on the head as he passed. "I'll be in my office. Just let me know when it's time." She nodded, and he ambled from the room.

Not long thereafter, they heard a ding, and Tohru hopped to her feet. "It's done earlier than I thought."

"Tohru-chan," Arisa said with a grin, "that's the doorbell."

Tohru turned to answer the door, but then a timer buzzed, signifying that dinner was ready. Conflicted, her head swiveled back and forth from foyer to kitchen until Kyou stood.

"I'll get the door," he told her, tracing a finger down her cheek. He knew he shouldn't be so free with her in front of others, but now that Yuki and Uotani knew about them, he felt almost comfortable. She beamed up at him, nodding, and that familiar rush of sentiment— love, devotion, gratitude all tangled up in one warm knot— clutched at him.

It swiftly turned to a sinking, leaded sensation when he swung open the door and found one of his cousins standing in the pool of light thrown by the porch lamp. "Hatori? What are—"

Hatori stepped to the side, and the sallow light fell on the faces of Akito and Kureno.

"I'm sorry for the suddenness of this visit," Hatori began, but Akito shouldered him aside to stand practically nose-to-nose with Kyou, and his smile was like the blade of a knife.

"Ah, my monster," he murmured. "You looked so happy, just then. How touching."

"What do you want?" Kyou was amazed at how steady his voice seemed, how clear his head, when the panic felt like it was streaming from every pore. _What was Akito doing here? _

"I've heard that love is in the air, here at Shigure's," Akito replied easily, "and wanted to see a bit of it for myself." He tilted his head to one side and pursed his lips, almost grotesquely coquettish. "I want to see how dear Honda-san acts around her _beloved_ monster."

Foreboding crawled up Kyou's spine to lodge between his shoulder blades. "Is that it?" he asked tensely. "You just want to make fun of us for a while?"

Akito's smile twisted. In the yellow light, he looked feral, like an animal with its teeth bared. "And to see the girl who's stolen the heart of the rat," he said. "It's come to my attention that one of that ugly girl's friends has become closer than she should to my Yuki."

Kyou bristled. "She's not ugly," he growled. "She's—"

"Kyou-kun? Who's at the door?" Tohru peered over his shoulder to see who was there. "Oh! Akito-sama!" Kyou could feel the tremor of her hand on his arm. "How— how kind of you to come visit us!"

"Yes, isn't it?" Akito's smile turned false, a hard bright mask behind which he mocked Tohru's oblivious innocence. "Won't you invite us in?"

"Oh, yes! Of course!" She stepped aside and bowed. "Please, come in."

Kyou shuffled to the side and watched, eyes dull, as Akito sauntered past with Hatori and Kureno in his wake. When Tohru would have followed, he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered in her ear, and jammed his feet into his shoes. "Be ready for something to happen."

Her eyes, turned so trustingly up to him, widened in dismay. "Kyou, you're scaring me."

"I'm sorry." He dropped a kiss on her lips. "If I'm wrong, I'll make it up to you in spades."

Tohru stretched up on her toes and kissed him back. "I trust you."

His heart clenched, and he kissed her again. "Let's get in there."

In the dining room, the scene was anxious, as Kyou had expected. Trying not to look nervous, Yuki was standing between Arisa and the newcomers, while Shigure cracked lame jokes and generally was obnoxious.

"Ah, and here's our Kyou and his little flower," he said as they entered, and everyone turned to see them. Tohru's hand curled harder around Kyou's, and he squeezed back to reassure her.

"Akito-san, Hatori-san, Kureno-san," Tohru began, "We were just about to have dinner. Would you like to join us?"

"Ever the hostess, hm?" Akito's lip curled in what could loosely be termed a smile. "No, we are not here to eat your food, merely to investigate the girls who would presume to be good enough for two of the most… special of the Sohmas."

Arisa was beginning to understand why Tohru's face was so pinched, and why Yuki and Kyou and even those two men with this Akito guy were fairly vibrating with tension. Akito was a total jerk, and not in the way that Ayame had been: Yuki's brother was overbearing and fairly insane, but he lacked the air of outright malevolence that Akito had. Staring him down wasn't going to work.

She got to her feet and came to stand beside Yuki, shoulders back. She opened her mouth to speak, but his hand on her wrist was a steady, warm pressure to keep silent.

"We're honoured you'd take an interest," Yuki said, just the slightest tremor in his voice.

"An interest? Yes, you could say that." Akito stepped closer, his eyes glittered with dawning rage. "I, who suffer and die for you and the rest of the Jyuunishi, have indeed _taken an interest_ in how you would desert and betray me and the others."

Arisa wondered what the hell he was talking about— suffering, dying?— and glanced at Tohru to see how she was taking the crazy talk. She was shocked to see no such similar confusion on her friend's face; Tohru looked apprehensive and sad, but entirely unsurprised by the events unfolding before them.

"There's been no betrayal," Yuki protested. "You know we are loyal to you, as we always have been."

"So loyal you'd take up with these common girls?" Akito spat. "I can see why the monster would settle for her." He flicked a shoulder in Tohru's direction. "Only someone as simple and ugly as she would have anything to do with such a hideous, foul beast."

Arisa felt her temper soaring to blistering levels at this insult to her best friend and even to Kyou. She didn't know why anyone would be calling him hideous or foul, since he was actually a handsome kid (not that she'd ever admit it aloud) but the tightness around his eyes was making her feel almost sick with anger.

Akito flicked a contemptuous gaze over at Arisa, who bristled to be examined like a horse for purchase. She clenched her fists and met his stare with her own.

"But _you_…" he continued, taking a step closer. "You're better. Not much, just a little." His expression turned contemplative as he glanced at Yuki, a sly smile curling his lips. "I wonder if she'll feel the same about your pretty face and sweet smiles when she knows the truth?"

"The truth?" Arisa was getting tired of all the cryptic speech and mysteries. "What can this secret possibly be for it to scare me away?" She planted her hands on her hips and glared at everyone. "After all, Tohru seems to know and be okay with it. If she can handle it, I think I can, too."

"Are you sure?" Akito sidled closer, reaching out a hand to touch her face, but Yuki placed himself between them once more. "Yuki, so protective. Do you think I would hurt her?"

"Like you wouldn't hurt Tohru?" Kyou retorted. "Like you wouldn't hurt Momiji, or Rin, or Kisa? Like you wouldn't hurt Yuki?"

The question, coming from the despised Cat, seemed to unhinge Akito. "They deserved it!" he shrieked, hands curling into claws. His eyes were glassy with rage and, Arisa was coming to see, a distinct lack of sanity. "You all deserve it, anything I do to you! Traitors! _Traitors!_"

Both hands outstretched, Akito launched himself at Yuki, shoving him so hard he fell back into Arisa. There was a _poof,_ a thick cloud of smoke, and Yuki just sort of disappeared.

"Yuki?" Arisa said, her voice rising when there was no answer. She waved her hands through the smoke to get it to dissipate. "Yuki!"

"He's down there," Akito crowed, pointing with a bony and imperious finger. "Paw through the pile of clothes at your feet, and you'll find him."

Arisa stared at him a long moment before her attention was caught by a squirming in the fabric on the floor. Bending down, she rummaged through the garments until her hand touched something furry and warm. Lifting it out, she saw a large rat, silver in colour, with limpid violet eyes.

"There's your beloved Yuki," Akito said, and began to laugh. "Your handsome prince, nothing more than a nasty little rodent. He's the most pathetic of them all, isn't he?"

Arisa didn't say a word, just stared at the rat in her grasp. Her mind was whirling, panicked. She was angry, and scared, and horrified. Looking at Tohru, she saw the anguish and pleading on the other girl's face, and remembered her words.

"_It's easy to see how much you care for each other."_

She did care for Yuki, more than she cared for almost anyone else, and she thought he loved her, too. Arisa didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't going to let this horrible man do anything else to Yuki. Even as a rat, the misery and humiliation plain in his eyes tore at her heart.

And so, clutching him to her chest, she turned and bolted, stopping only to jam her feet into her shoes at the front door before running out into the night.

Behind her, she could hear Akito screaming. "Stop her! Get him back! Don't let her take my Yuki, get him back!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:** Thank you for your kind reviews, I'm so pleased you're enjoying it :)

To Golden Meliades: I agree, Momiji deserves far more love than he gets. schnoogles rabbit-boy 

**Blue Heaven, chapter ten**

Arisa clutched Yuki to her chest, turning and bolting for the door. She stopped only to jam her feet into her shoes before running out into the night.

Behind her, she could hear Akito screaming. "Stop her! Get him back! Don't let her take my Yuki, get him back!"

Her breath sobbing in her chest, she forced herself to run faster. Behind her, she heard the crunch of feet on gravel as the men who'd accompanied Akito started pursuing her. Times like this, she wished she were on the track team instead of having taken up swimming; even with the thundering of her heart, she could tell they were gaining on her.

"Arisa-san, get off the trail," Yuki instructed, surprising her so that she stumbled and nearly fell. "Get off the trail, they won't be able to follow us in the woods."

"I don't know where to go, we'll get lost," she protested, too numb to feel much shock that he could speak. Then again, if he could turn into a rat in the first place, why _not_ speak, too? Maybe he'd tap-dance, as well.

"No, we won't," he corrected, his tone gentle even when under obvious stress. "Trust me. My friends will help us."

Arisa took a deep breath and veered from the path to crash through the woods. Almost immediately, dozens of small, agile shapes rustled in the darkness around them.

"Rats," she said, unable to keep the revulsion from her voice. It was one thing to touch Yuki; he was perfectly clean and she knew where he'd been. But these were wild rats, and she was more than just a little grossed out.

"Follow them," Yuki said. His face was tucked against her neck, under her ear, and she could hear him clearly.

Arisa ran and ran, stumbling through the forest. Brambles pulled at her hair and clothes, and her hands and legs were covered in scratches.

"We've lost them," Yuki told her after a while. "You can slow down now."

She slowed to a grateful jog; then, muscles aching and lungs burning, she stopped to rest and catch her breath. She strained her ears, but couldn't hear anyone behind her. Squinting, she peered back toward the house but there was nothing to see but shadowed trees looming overhead.

She resumed, this time just at a walk, until the rats led them to the end of the woods. Stepping out onto the street, Arisa peered around until she acclimated herself to where in the city they were, then started jogging once more toward where she thought the nearest train stop would be.

"I think I have enough to get us within walking distance of my apartment," she said, rummaging first one hand and then the other— switching Yuki back and forth— in her pockets for change. As they approached the train stop, however, she had a thought. "I don't think they'll let me on, with a rat."

"If you were wearing a coat, I could hide inside that," Yuki said, "but—"

They were at the stop now, and more people were milling around them, shooting them odd looks.

"But nothing," Arisa muttered, trying not to move her lips, and turned toward a wall to conceal her actions. She quickly unbuttoned her blouse and unceremoniously shoved Yuki in, then buttoned herself back up before joining the line to board the train.

"If I slouch, and you don't wiggle much, no one should notice," she whispered as they shuffled onto the car. He didn't answer right away, so she tapped him lightly with a finger. "Yuki?"

"Yes, right," he said, and even under a layer of poly/cotton blend, his voice sounded faint.

"Everything all right?" Arisa asked, concerned. She took a seat in the corner and turned toward the window, everything about her body language screaming, "leave me alone!"

"Everything's fine," he mumbled. "I just—think where you just stuffed me, Arisa-san."

Her mouth dropped open, and she hastily covered it with her hand to keep from hooting with laughter—she'd been so concerned with hiding him, and thinking of him as a rat, that she hadn't given a moment's thought to the fact that she'd just shoved her boyfriend bodily between her breasts. They'd kissed quite freely as well as engaged in some simple caresses, but hadn't gone much farther in their lovemaking.

"I'm sorry, Yuki," she gasped, giggling a trifle hysterically as the events of the evening caught up with her. First a screaming lunatic, then Yuki becoming a rat, running through the forest, and now smuggling him onto a train. And the night was not yet done; they had at least a half-hour before they reached her stop, and a walk of several blocks from there to her apartment. Anything could yet happen.

An elderly lady sat down opposite Arisa, and she forced herself to settle down and be composed, faking a credible smile in the woman's direction before hunching further into the seat and facing the window. The clicking of the wheels upon the track should have relaxed her as it usually did, but she was too tense and apprehensive to allow the rhythmic sound to do its job. There was still the possibility of Akito and his henchmen finding them and doing something horrible to Yuki.

Then she was brought up short-- had she just actually, seriously used the word 'henchmen'? Again, giggles threatened to burst free, and she savagely bit her lip to contain herself, though she couldn't quite keep herself from shaking in a little silent laughter.

"Arisa-san?" Yuki whispered.

"Nothing, nothing," she murmured down the collar of her shirt, smiling weakly at the old lady, who was now eyeing her with suspicion.

Eventually, finally, blessedly, the train groaned and its wheels squealed as they pulled in to Arisa's stop. She exited onto the dingy, trash-strewn platform, still careful to round her shoulders. Darting a glance around her, once she was satisfied the area was otherwise deserted she unbuttoned her blouse and pulled him out.

"Almost home," she told him, wrapping her arms around herself to support him better, and also to rub her hands up and down her chilled flesh— it was cold out, and now that she wasn't running for her life, her body temperature had lowered to normal. She couldn't wait to have a hot shower and put on some warm pajamas.

"I'm not holding you too tightly, am I?" she asked after a few minutes. His little body was warm in her arms, his fur soft on her palms. She ran cautious fingertips over him, feeling fragile little ears and a long, narrow tail somehow vulnerable in its nakedness.

"No, you're doing it just right," he replied, his whiskers tickling her skin. "Arisa-san, I'm sorry—"

"Don't," she said harshly. "Did you have something to do with being a rat?"

"What? No. It's a curse, placed on the Sohma family centuries ago."

"And Akito," she continued. "Did you cause him to be that fucked up?"

A tiny huff of breath against her earlobe told her he was laughing, just a little. "No."

"Then it's nothing for you to be sorry about, so don't apologize." She held him in front of her so they could see each other's faces, and smirked. "Save it for when you actually do something wrong."

Yuki's little body began to quiver in her hands, and for a moment she thought he was still laughing, until she heard a sob and realized he was crying.

"What--? What's wrong now?" she asked, mystified.

"I love you," he said brokenly. "You are… you are a gift to me."

Arisa's breath caught in her throat. "Oh, don't," she begged. "Please, don't."

"Don't tell you I love you?" His voice cracked.

"No, don't cry," she clarified, her own composure wavering dangerously. She'd never been able to hold it together when another person was crying. "Please."

"I can't help it," he replied with a sniffle. "You don't know what it means to me, that you accept me in spite of… everything."

She stroked her fingertips over his sleek head and hastened her pace as her apartment building came into view. "It's mutual, Yuki," she replied lowly. "I've always been the tough one, the one in the gang, the Yankee. And if it's not that, I'm the tall one, the blonde one. I've always been an outcaste, but that never mattered to you, did it?"

She rubbed a long path down his spine, making him shiver against her.

"No," he replied, "it never did. I don't care about any of those things, Arisa-san. I like that you're tough, and tall, and blonde, and a Yankee. I—I think you're beautiful."

She held him tighter, and ducked so that her cheek rested on his little head. "I love you, too," she whispered. "A _lot_, Yuki."

He wrapped his tiny arms tightly around one of her fingers and they shared a moment of silence, broken only by the sound of her shoes on the pavement.

"When will we be in your apartment?" he demanded fiercely at last. "And do you have a nice, fluffy blanket? I think I'll die if I don't get to hold you."

She laughed, relieved the tension was broken, and cupped his bottom in one hand while the other fished in her pockets for her keys. "Crap," she said, "musta left them at your place. No matter, I'll just break in."

In the alley on the side of the building was a fire escape, and she was about to stuff him back into her shirt so her hands were free to climb up but he halted her.

"No, let me," he said. "It's safer." She helped him up onto the railing, and he scurried easily up to her window on the third floor. It wasn't long until with a _poof!_ he transformed back into a boy and pried open the window, slipping in and looking around for something to cover himself with. There was a lap quilt on the chair and he gratefully wrapped it around himself before shuffling downstairs to let her in the building.

"I think you need the hot shower more than I do," she commented when she saw that he was positively blue with cold. "Go on, I'll lay out clothes for you."

The hot water felt blissful on his chilled skin, and he stayed in until it began to run cold. A stack of clean garments— Arisa's most mannish cargo pants and a plain white t-shirt-- lay neatly folded on the counter with a big towel when he emerged, and after briskly rubbing his skin and hair dry he dressed. Pulling the thick socks on his feet felt wonderful, and by the time he was seated at her little table with a steaming cup of tea before him, Yuki was feeling much recovered.

"You're looking better," Arisa commented, sitting next to him. She'd changed, too, into plaid flannel pajamas. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her face freshly scrubbed, and Yuki thought she was lovely.

"I meant it, you know," he said into his teacup, feeling his face heat up at his boldness. "I do. Love you."

She went still, and then her own teacup clattered to the table. Some tea sloshed over, ignored as she glanced around them.

"Where's that stupid blanket?" she grumbled, making him laugh. She snagged it and hastily folded it, not precisely and evenly as Tohru had, before draping it over her chest and dragging Yuki close.

He shuddered at her touch, a stark and soothing counterpoint to his ragged nerves. He'd been horrified at the manic light in Akito's eyes, knowing he meant to reveal their terrible secret to Arisa and fearing she would reject him for it. Yuki had never been so happy to be wrong in his life. He decided to express it by kissing her.

The moment their lips touched, the yawning emptiness that had threatened to overwhelm him ever since Akito's appearance at Shigure's went away, abruptly and completely. He closed his arms around her, feeling hers twine around his neck, and just let himself sink into her, lips and heart and soul. She was so warm, so alive and giving, that he could almost feel the scars of his past healing as he held her.

When they drew apart, Yuki rested his forehead against Arisa's. "I wonder what happened after we left," he said. "I wonder if Honda-san is alright, but I don't dare call." He paused. "Does that make me a coward?"

"Not to me. It could get them in just as much trouble as us. Besides, Kyou will take care of her. He'd defend her with his life. You know that." She placed her hands, cool and rough, against his cheeks before sliding them down his neck to his shoulders. "We'll call in the morning, how does that sound?"

"It sounds good."

They stood and went to the bedroom, feeling as relaxed and familiar with the action as if they'd done it every night for years. In the bed, Arisa curled on her side facing him and rested her head on his shoulder. His hand came up to stroke her hair and her face.

"You're a gift to me, too, Yuki," Arisa whispered into the darkness.

He dropped a kiss on her brow, and turned out the light.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note:** I can't believe how many reviews this story is getting! Youall are amazing, thank you so much for being faithful readers :)

To answer some of your questions:

1. There will be no lemons, and probably not even limes beyond some kissing. This story is firmly PG13 because I want to make it as close to canon as possible, and I think we all know there won't be lemons in canon :)

2. Just pretend that Uotani and Kureno never met before he and Akito stormed into Shigure's during the last chapter-- they have no relationship at all (poor Kureno, what I've done to him in this fic! Wah. cuddles him

3. Akito knew about the romance between the two couples because Shigure's a sneaky tattletale, of course. I'm going by the crafty, morally ambiguous manga!Shigure in this fic, as opposed to the far more benign version in the anime.

4. I am SO SO SO happy youall are feeling the Uo/Yuki love as I am! I really enjoy pairing opposite types of people and putting refined Yuki with tough Arisa just felt perfect to me. I'm so pleased it's working out as I'd wanted :)

5. I'm sorry to have mistakenly written the train stop at Uo's as run-down and dirty; I was trying to evoke a mood of a dingy, down-at-heels neighbourhood and didn't realize that Japan's public transit would be clean no matter the state of the area around it. My apologies for the inaccuracy, and please do continue to correct me when I get things wrong!

**Blue Heaven, chapter 11**

Kyou watched, his stomach increasingly sick and sour, as Akito tormented Yuki and Uotani. His relief that for once he was not the brunt of Akito's malevolence was somewhat blunted by Tohru's distress, almost a tangible thing in the tense air of Shigure's house. Her hand gripped his with surprising strength, her fingernails biting into his skin, and he focused on the pain of it to keep himself grounded and alert instead of losing himself in his thoughts.

He jerked back when Uotani made a break for it, pushing Tohru behind him so she wouldn't get trampled in the rush as Uo bolted from the house, Akito fast on her heels.

"Stop her! Get him back! Don't let her take my Yuki, get him back!" Akito screamed, waving his arms toward Hatori, Shigure, and Kureno. Obediently, Hatori and Kureno began to run after the fleeing girl, though not as speedily as they could have done. Shigure lagged behind, to no one's surprise.

"I'm wearing geta," he complained, sticking one leg before him to illustrate. The geta dangled from his bare toes, mocking Akito with each gentle swing. "How am I supposed to chase them through the woods in these?"

Akito gave a brief shriek of rage and frustration and struck him in the shoulder, shoving him bodily toward the front door. Shigure managed to slide a glance Kyou's way just before he was thrust into the foyer, and Kyou snapped to life.

"Come on," he told Tohru, scooping up her shoes and tossing them to her. "We have to get out of here while we can."

"Oh, no," Tohru moaned, hopping as she put the shoes on her feet. "I had a feeling this would happen! Poor Uo-chan, poor Yuki-kun! Did you see the looks on their faces?"

Kyou didn't answer, just grabbed her hand and made for the susumi doors off the dining room.

"Kyou, wait!" Tohru protested, tugging at his hand at the same time she dug in her heels, refusing to go even a step further. "We almost forgot Raidon!"

He froze. She was wasting their precious getaway time worried about a sack of flour? Moreover, she wanted to take the sack of flour with them on their escape?

"Tohru, you can't be serious."

"Kyou, it's our _baby_," she whispered, looking up at him pitifully.

He heaved a sigh and grabbed the sack of flour off the table, cursing his inability to refuse her anything. But she was so pretty when she beamed happily at him, like she was doing now… seeing it, knowing he'd been the one to bring that smile to her face, started a fine glow of pleasure and satisfaction in his chest that burned brightly even now when issues in the Sohma family had come to a head, and they were fleeing for what might be the very existence of their love.

They slipped outside and quickly lost themselves in the thick woods around Shigure's house. Kyou knew the forest like the back of his hand, and for once was thankful beyond words for his cat's ability to see so keenly in the dark as he picked his way unerringly through the trees and undergrowth. On either side of them, the bright eyes of their gathered feline escort watched them.

Tohru kept up with him quite well; her active life made her very fit and she was hardly out of breath in spite of their brisk pace as they tromped through the woods. Her hand gripped his firmly and though she stumbled a lot, she never once complained.

_She's good in a crisis, _he thought, and was proud of her— lots of girls might have cried or freaked out but not his Tohru. He squeezed her hand, flashing a little smile at her, and her eyes glimmered up at him in the dim moonlight streaming through the overhead boughs of the trees.

"Where are we going?" she asked after a moment.

"To Shishou's," he replied. "Unless you can think of somewhere better?" He glanced toward her, but she shook her head.

"No, I think his place is the best bet for us." She paused. "Do you think Yuki-kun and Uo-chan are all right?" she asked, pitching her voice low even though there was no one following them.

Kyou cast his mind about for possibilities; he was fairly certain they'd gone to Uotani's apartment, and fervently hoped Tohru hadn't left its address hanging about for Shigure or Akito to find if they decided to snoop around.

"Yes," he answered after a moment. "They're both smart, and tough. I think they'll be okay."

"What about us?" Tohru whispered haltingly. "Will we be okay, too?"

Kyou stopped and turned to face her. "Yes," he declared, pouring every ounce of his determination into the word. "We will be. I promise you, I promise. I won't let anything happen to you."

"I don't care about me!" Tohru cried passionately, her hands clasping his upper arms. "I'm worried about you! What if Akito-san forbids you to see me again!"

"We'll find a way around it," he told her firmly. "I'm just worried about what he might make Hatori do to you."

"You… you mean, he might make Hatori-san erase my memories?" At his nod, instead of looking upset, she cocked her head to one side like an inquisitive bird and pursed her lips in thought. "I don't think it would work. Kyou-kun is so important to me, I could never forget him!"

She wasn't teasing; she honestly meant it. Kyou's throat closed up as a fierce emotion welled up within him, and he slid his hand under the warm, silky fall of her hair to cup her neck and draw her close for a kiss.

"I love you," he whispered against her lips. "You're enough to almost make me believe in miracles."

"Miracles _can_ happen, Kyou-kun," she told him earnestly when they pulled away. "I never thought I would be happy again after Mom died. Not like I was when she was still here. But then I met you, and Yuki-kun, and I know now that there's always hope."

She beamed up at him, her smile illuminating the shadows looming around them, and Kyou couldn't resist kissing her again.

Then a twig cracked behind them and they both jumped, springing back, tense and wary as they scanned their surroundings for signs of Akito, Kureno, or Hatori. Then a cat meowed plaintively somewhere to the right, and Kyou relaxed.

"It was just a cat," he said, a trifle disgustedly. "So much for being stealthy and graceful."

"You're graceful enough for both you and cat-san," Tohru said. "But I think we should hurry, Kyou-kun." And she took his hand again, beginning to tug him in entirely the wrong direction.

He gently pulled her back on track toward Shishou's house, and soon they'd found their way to the edge of the woods and beyond, jogging lightly up the streets until they spotted the familiar silhouette of the house against the dark night sky.

Kyou saw Tohru's body language loosen up at the sight of it, and knew she was just as apprehensive as he about getting there safely. They sped up and nearly fell through the door when Kunimitsu opened it to their impassioned knocking.

"Kyou-kun?' he asked, amazed. "Tohru-san? What are you doing here so late? And why are you carrying a sack of flour?"

Kyou pushed by him, pulling Tohru along in his wake. "Has anyone come by or called?" he asked. "And where's Shishou?"

"I'm here," Kazuma replied, emerging from his office at the end of the hall. "And no, no one's called or come by. Why? What's wrong?"

"The shit's hit the fan," Kyou replied succinctly. "Akito knows about Tohru and I, and Yuki and Uo—"

Kazuma raised his eyebrows. "Finally admitted it to each other, have you?" he said, smiling to soften the interruption. "I'm glad. Didn't know about Yuki-kun and Uotani-san, however." Both his foster son and Tohru blushed fiercely.

"They were keeping it a secret," she explained.

"As were you," Kazuma quipped, adding a little reproachfully, "You could have told your old father, Kyou."

"You're not old," Kyou grumbled, kicking his toe at the wall in bashfulness. "And that's all besides the point. Akito lost his mind once and for all, Uo and Yuki ran away, and we got away before anything could happen to us."

"Do you think that there could be actual trouble?" Kazuma asked, all traces of humour vanished at the possibility of danger.

Kyou took a deep breath, contemplating. "Yeah," he said at last. "The way Akito was acting, I wouldn't put it past him to do something drastic in retaliation. Especially to Tohru, as she's the reason Yuki knows Uotani in the first place."

Kazuma shifted his stance subtly; he made no overt gesture of threat but somehow he was more alert, more tense, more watchful. "I'm glad you came here, then," he said quietly. "Nothing will happen to Tohru here."

A knock sounded at the door, and Kyou and Kunimitsu both assumed guarded expressions.

"That was fast," Tohru breathed, and let Kyou stuff her behind all three of them as Kunimitsu went to answer the door.

"If it's them, stay calm as long as possible," Kazuma said. Kyou nodded, willing his fists to unclench. His head was a whirlwind of conflicted emotions and fear that Akito would somehow be able to compel him or Hatori to act against Tohru. What would he do if Tohru no longer remembered him? A bleak image of his life without her in it flashed in his mind's eye, and he had to steel himself against crying out at the pain it brought him.

Then Kunimitsu opened the door to reveal Hanajima Saki standing there, black-gloved hand upraised to knock once more, and pain gave way to confusion at the sight of her.

"Hana-chan?" Tohru exclaimed, peering over Kyou's shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. A glance at Kazuma showed him that his father was dumbstruck at the sight of her. It was beyond creepy that his Shishou was as speechless as any schoolboy to see her, but in this instance, with everything else that was happening that night, Kyou couldn't honestly blame him.

Even he had to admit that she was looking well, as she peeled off her dramatic cloak and revealed a long, slim dress with clinging sleeves and a scooped neckline that revealed quite a lot of smooth, creamy skin. The cool night hair had ruffled her waist-length curls and brought a becoming flush to her cheeks, and she looked excessively pretty.

"I sensed a lot of distress and apprehension in Tohru's waves," Hana replied serenely. "I followed them here." Her eyes glimmered with what looked to be centuries worth of mysteries as she gazed up at Kazuma as if he were the only person in the room, or even in the entire world. "Imagine my pleasure to feel your waves as well, Sohma-san."

"Um," Kazuma said, not too intelligently.

She smiled at him, then, before turning to Tohru and taking her friend's hands in her own. "What has happened?" she asked. "Why are you so upset tonight?"

Kyou exchanged a glance with Tohru, hoping she understood the caution he wanted her to take. She gave a minute nod in return.

"The head of the Sohma family learned that Yuki-kun and Uo-chan are dating," she told Hana. "And… and about Kyou-kun and I." She coloured faintly at the last, averting her eyes but smiling a tiny, secret smile.

"I'm glad you are finally able to reveal your feelings to each other," Hana said. "What did the Sohma head do?"

"He pushed Yuki-kun into Uo-chan and said some hurtful things… Uo-chan grabbed Yuki-kun and ran out of the house! We think she went home."

Hana nodded; if she thought there was something odd about Tohru's phrasing, she didn't mention it. "And you two?"

"We were worried they'd try to… try something with us," Kyou replied carefully. "So we left while they were distracted in trying to catch Uotani and Yuki."

"And brought little Raidon with you, I see," Hana commented, glancing toward where the sack of flour squatted on a side table.

"He's our son!" Tohru declared tearfully. "We couldn't just leave him behind! We'd fail our class!"

Kazuma narrowed his eyes at Kyou, who just shook his head wearily; really, it wasn't worth the explanation.

"And now what?" Hana asked. Her eyes left his to travel placidly over Kunimitsu, who also blushed to be caught in her gaze, until they rested on Kazuma.

"Now," he replied, holding her eyes steadily, "we wait."

"I don't expect it will be long, especially if they can't find Yuki and Uotani," said Kyou.

"I should try calling them at Uo-chan's," Tohru fretted, wringing her hands in anxiety. "To make sure they got to her apartment safely." She had only managed to dial half the number before there was another knock on the door, this one impatient.

Tohru jumped at the sound, and the phone slipped from her grasp. Kyou snatched it before it fell to the floor, and replaced it in the cradle.

"It's them," Hana announced. "Sohma Shigure-san's waves are on the other side of the door, along with those of three others, all distressed. I wish now I had allowed Megumi to accompany me here; his skill with a curse would have come in handy…"

"All of you, go into the practice room," Kazuma interrupted, ushering them forward. "I'll try to get rid of them."

Kyou, Tohru, and Kunimitsu all vanished into the room, and Kazuma turned to the door only to find Hanajima still there.

He frowned. "You should—"

"I will remain here with you," she said.

"But it might not be safe," he protested, placing one hand on her shoulder in an attempt to steer her toward the practice room.

She covered his hand with her own and stared up at him. "I will remain here with you," she repeated. "My place is by your side."

Kazuma blinked, assimilating her words. This was ridiculous; the girl was only sixteen years old, fully half his age. And yet, it was flattering have someone so lovely be attracted to him, and there was something insidiously satisfying about having someone beside him when the time came to confront a problem. The last ten years of raising Kyou had been long, hard, lonely ones, with no one to share the burden. A broken little part of him was reaching for her, for the affection she offered, even as the rest of him was objecting loudly.

Another knock, louder and more insistent than the first, interrupted his reverie. Still she stood there, watching him, waiting patiently, and he let the weak part of him, hungry for companionship, win just for once.

"Stay out of sight," he heard himself saying. "If Akito is angry with Tohru for all of this happening, I don't want him to be reminded of her when he sees you."

Hanajima nodded and slipped into the kitchen, silently closing the shoji behind her. Somehow, Kazuma could feel her presence just on the other side of the thin paper screen and felt comforted by it. He wiped his hands on his yukata, and opened the door.

"Akito-san," he said to the furious face before him, calmly faking surprise, "I wasn't expecting to see you here."


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: **I'm so pleased youall are enjoying this so much, your reviews never fail to put a smile on my face.

I am going to be writing an alternate reality Tohru/Kyou fic after this is complete. Alternate reality is not alternate universe. AR is when everything is exactly the same but then, in one moment, something different happens and the story spins away from canon at that point. This new AR fic of mine will give my answer to the question, "In the last few manga chapters, we learned that Kyou failed to do something, with unfortunate consequences for Tohru. What if he hadn't held himself back? What if he had acted? How might all of their lives been affected?" I hope to see you all reading (and enjoying) that, when I start publishing it.

Many thanks to blacklavender and quirkyslayer for their advice on improving this chapter, I dedicate it to them for their help.**  
**

**Blue Heaven, chapter twelve**

"Akito-san," Kazuma said to the furious face before him, calmly faking surprise, "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Don't lie to me," Akito replied, shouldering his way into the house. "I know perfectly well the monster and that ugly girl ran here when they left Shigure's house." He turned around, fixing Kazuma with a beady stare.

"They're not here, Akito-sama," Kazuma replied, careful to keep his voice even. He'd heard tales of Akito's episodes of rage but never before witnessed one first-hand; he wondered how close to such a thing Akito was, at that moment. There was high colour in Akito's face, his breath was coming fast and shallow, and his eyes were almost feverishly bright.

"I know they're here," Akito insisted, his voice pitching higher with each word. "I know it!"

He stalked down the hall, flinging doors open as he went. "I know they're here!" he shrieked, increasingly frustrated as each room revealed no fugitives.

"Akito-sama, I must respectfully ask that you stop searching my home in this way," Kazuma said, following Akito's erratic path down the hall after glancing at Hatori, Shigure, and Kureno. They all looked embarrassed and apprehensive, but mostly helpless, and he sighed— no help from that quarter, then.

Akito ignored him, of course, and continued his search. Kazuma's stomach clenched when Akito started for the last door, the door to the practice room, in which hid his foster-son, Kunimitsu, and Tohru. He shot another look Hatori's way, this one of blatant pleading.

"Akito-sama, perhaps we should—" Hatori began, his hand reaching out to grasp Akito's stick-thin arm, but Akito wrenched free with a furious glare.

"Never touch me!" he said coldly, and flung open the final door. Behind it, Kyou and Kunimitsu stood side-by-side, an obvious barrier between Tohru behind them and the rest of the world. She peeped over their shoulders, eyes enormous and scared.

"Well, he's still in a good mood," Kyou commented dryly. Kazuma, at Akito's side, sighed; _so much for trying to smooth things over_, he thought.

"Ah, there's my monster," Akito purred, good humour miraculously restored at the sight of the wayward Cat. "You thought to escape me, but I'll always find you, don't you know that?" He stepped closer. "We're connected, no matter how the fact disgusts me. No matter how little you deserve the honour, we'll always be together. Well, until you're locked away in that tiny little cell, that is."

His smile seemed to eat up his entire face; his posture spoke of victory. "And that will be very, very soon, my Kyou," Akito continued slowly, drawing it out. "This entire incident has shown me that the Cat can't be trusted to live so far away from my control; the monster in you drives you to be terrible, just terrible. Being with this ugly girl must be so confusing, hm? She's led you to believe you're _not_ just a hideous creature, alive because of my forbearance and compassion."

"Stop…" Tohru breathed, hating to hear such things about Kyou.

"You're such a cruel thing," Akito told her petulantly. She shrank back, shaking her head in denial at the accusation. "You've told him such lies, such lies… given him false hope, made him think there's a future for him with you, out in the world." His head tilted consideringly, lips pursed into a concerned little moue. "And perhaps you even believe it. But you don't understand, you never have."

He smiled indulgently, but the edge of it was razor-sharp. "Nothing will ever come between us. No matter how much you think you love such a _thing_, nothing will _ever_ come between us. I will make sure of it."

To Kyou, he stretched out a hand, long and languid, the bones fragile as a bird's.

"Come with me now, my poor monster, and we'll put you into your room, right this moment. You'll be safe there, away from this vicious girl who's made you believe terrible, false things."

Kyou didn't move; he stood there, stricken, staring down at Akito's hand with eyes full of dread, as if it were a viper about to strike.

"Come with me, Kyou," Akito said impatiently, and this time there was no entreaty; it was a command.

Kyou's face became very red, and his limbs began to tremble. Clearly, he was fighting against himself, but one foot, and then two, started to move toward Akito.

"No," whispered Tohru, clutching at his sleeve. "Kyou-kun, no. Don't do it."

"Now, Sohma Kyou!" There was a strange light in Akito's eyes, something that went beyond the usual manic glint usually found in them.

Kyou leaned back, hands clenched; it was obvious he was struggling against the order. And still he took another unwilling step toward Akito.

"I'm sorry, Tohru," he told her through gritted teeth. "I have to. I can't… stop myself."

Kazuma had not realized the extent of the Akito's power over the Jyuunishi; it was like nothing he'd ever seen before. He knew that Kyou did not, with all his heart, want to go with Akito; knew that Kyou was fighting it with everything he had, and it was as if his body were not his own: he was still moving.

He also knew that, as long as there was strength in his own body, he would not allow Kyou to be forced into captivity. He was not alone, however, because just as he was placing himself between Akito and Kyou, halting his son's progress, Tohru darted around Kunimitsu to push Akito back.

"I'm sorry, Akito-sama," she said, head down, voice quaking. "But I can't let you do this to him."

Akito stumbled back against Shigure and Kureno, then struggled free of them when they tried to steady him on his feet.

"You can't _let_ me?" he drawled, sounding both amused and bored, but there was a vicious thread running behind the words. "Who are you to _let_ me do anything?"

"I'm no one," Tohru replied shakily. "But who I am doesn't matter. Kyou-kun doesn't deserve to be locked away. He doesn't want to go, so I'm sorry, but I can't let you do it."

Akito pursed his lips in consideration. Without removing his narrow basilisk gaze from her, he said, "Hatori, Shigure, Kureno. Take Kyou and bring him out to the car."

But they didn't move, not immediately, nor even after a few moments. Akito whipped around to glare at them.

"Hatori!" he snapped. "Kureno! What are you waiting for? Shigure!"

Hatori looked steadily at him, but didn't speak; Kureno turned his head away altogether.

Shigure forced a smile. "I don't think you really want to be doing this, Akito—" he began, but was cut off.

"Ah, do you defy me as well?" Akito's voice sounded like it was fraying around the edges. He stood perfectly still, and silence reigned for the space between heartbeats; Akito's form, taut, frenetic, was the very picture of suspended animation. He appeared to be puzzling something over, if the crease between his brows was any indication.

Finally, blessedly, he seemed to come to some decision, because the moment of stillness ended with the slow, malicious curve of his lips. Kazuma felt his stomach clench at the sight of it, because it meant _something_ was going to happen.

"It's all your fault," Akito told Tohru, finally. "It has been, all along. Everything was fine before they met you. Everything was perfect… we had _harmony_. We had _unity_." He took a step closer to her; Kyou tensed, wary. "And then you intruded on our lives, and made them--"

He stopped himself there, his breathing so ragged at that point that it stirred the bangs on Tohru's forehead. She seemed hypnotized by the rage marking his delicate face, at the flush on his cheeks and the brightness of his eyes. There was something profoundly naked at the moment, as if both he and she had been peeled bare and revealed to the world.

"Made them what?" she asked in a whisper.

"You made them hate me," Akito replied, just as softly, the words trembling on his lips, a wealth of pain and fear woven between them.

Tohru's face changed, smoothed with comprehension and a profound pity. Then, amazingly, she straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath, blinking away the tears that had started in her eyes.

"No, Akito-sama," she corrected gently, in quavering tones. "I didn't do a thing but love them. _You_ made them hate you, all by yourself."

Again that terrible stillness as Akito froze, processing what Tohru had said. Then, as if something had detonated within him, his eyes and mouth stretched open in the purest expression of fury Kazuma had ever seen.

"Disgusting girl!" he screamed, "how dare you come between us with your lies? Your _lies_! How _dare_ you?"

He leapt at her, hand drawn back to strike her, but before he could swing it back toward her—before Kazuma could even hope to intercept the blow— there was a strangely piercing frequency in the room, and the air seemed to warp oddly around them.

Pain welled up in Kazuma's head, a shrieking and relentless thing, and it was all he could do to keep from dropping to his knees. _What was this? What was happening?_ Forcing his eyes open, he saw that Akito, Hatori, Shigure, and Kyou had fallen to the floor and were crying out. Kunimitsu and Tohru were on their hands and knees, trying to reach Kyou, and Kureno was trying to control Akito's movements. Kazuma wondered, for a split second, why Kureno wasn't as affected as the other Jyunnishi, but the thought was quickly gone as he struggled to figure out what was going on.

Hanajima Saki stood in the doorway, head tilted back and eyes closed as her hair and clothing crackled stiffly around her, floating on some invisible breeze. He went to her, and took her shoulders in his hands.

"Hanajima-san," he said over the roaring in his head, but she didn't reply. "Saki!" He shook her lightly. Her eyes opened at that, unfocused and faraway.

"Kazuma-san," she said hazily. "Is Tohru-chan safe?" He shifted so she could see around him. Behind him, the three Zodiac members were writhing. Weeping, Tohru had put Kyou's head in her lap while Kunimitsu sat helplessly nearby and Kureno struggled to keep Akito from banging his head on the floor.

"What have you done?" Kazuma demanded, aghast, then winced at how loud his voice seemed alongside the ringing whine that filled his skull.

Saki's face went white as chalk, and she let out a sob of dismay. Abruptly, the pain left Kazuma, and he sighed in pure relief. Behind him, Tohru stopped weeping. But all was not well again with the others; the two Jyuunishi and their god continued to twitch and spasm, their bodies convulsing as if being electrocuted.

"Kyou-kun!" Tohru cried, her eyes huge and desperate. "Please, Hana-chan, Shishou-san, do something! I don't know what's wrong!"

Saki dashed over to Tohru, dropping to the floor beside her friend. "I'm so sorry!" she gasped. "I only meant to stop the mean one from hurting you—"

Tohru ducked to avoid being struck by one of Kyou's flailing arms. "Hana-chan, you have to make it stop!" she whispered, her throat hoarse. "Please, do something!"

Saki closed her eyes, brow furrowed in concentration, and seemed to be straining against something. A slow trickle of blood began to stream from one nostril, the colour of it shocking against the deep pallor of her face, and Kazuma knelt by her side, taking her in his arms as she began to shake. She heaved in a breath and gave a short scream, the sound bouncing off the walls, and went still at the same time as Kyou and the others. For an endless moment, there was utter, overwhelming silence.

"Kyou-kun! Hana-chan!" Tohru's voice cut through it. She sounded panicked and at the end of her endurance. "They're not moving, Shishou! They're not _breathing_!" Indeed, their skin was beginning to turn faintly blue.

Kazuma thought his own heart might have stopped. "CPR," he declared, motioning to Kunimitsu. "Tohru, do you know it?" Mutely, she nodded jerkily. "And you?" he asked Kureno, but the Rooster was already performing it on Akito.

Kazuma lay Saki flat on the floor and began to compress her chest, and noted out of the corner of his eye that Tohru was doing the same to Kyou. Across the room, Kunimitsu had begun tending Hatori. After a few long, anxiety-ridden moments, Hatori jackknifed to an upright position with a gasping lurch. His eyes were wild, and he thrust Kunimitsu from him, toward Shigure.

"The others," he rasped. "Where—" He caught sight of Kyou and Tohru. She was doing her best to perform compressions on Kyou, but couldn't stop crying, and her slight weight wasn't having much affect on her patient. Hatori scrambled in an odd, crablike manner over to them, brushed her aside and took over.

"Take his pulse for me, Tohru," he told her. She shifted to the side and took up Kyou's limp arm, fingers fumbling at his wrist.

Beneath Kazuma's own hands, Saki made a hiccuppy sound and opened her eyes. Her head lolled around on her mass of black hair, and she reached out toward him. "It wasn't supposed to happen this way," she murmured. "It wasn't, it wasn't." She curled onto her side, her face buried in Kazuma's lap, and began to cry.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: **Chapter 13, only two more to go! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. To make up for it, I have gone over the entire thing and polished it, improving some bits (hopefully) that some of you more knowledgeable about Japanese culture have kindly pointed out to me. I hope it makes the story a little smoother and more credible.

In thanks for your many reviews and such wonderful support of this story, please go see the fanart made by two wonderful artists and friends, quirkyslayer and moko moko. Just go to my profile (click on my name on the left, above), then click the "my galleries" link-- the Blue Heaven art is right on top. Thanks for shoomy2003 for her beta of this chapter.**  
**

**Blue Heaven, chapter 13**

Beneath Kazuma's hands, Saki made a hiccuppy sound and opened her eyes. Her head lolled around on her mass of black hair, and she reached out toward him.

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way," she murmured. "It wasn't, it wasn't." She curled onto her side, her face buried in Kazuma's lap, and began to cry.

Dumbfounded, near frantic with worry for Kyou, Tohru could only watch as Hatori tried to save Kyou's life. Across the room, Akito had revived and was sitting up, leaning heavily against Kureno and coughing.

"Gone," he mumbled insensibly between gasps. "Gone, gone, gone." An unsettling smile flitted across his lips, and then his face crumpled and he began to moan, a low-pitched sound that grew to a wordless, wailing expression of grief.

Kyou gave a choking gurgle, then, and rolled away from Hatori to retch violently. Beside them, Kazuma let out a heavy sigh of relief. Across the room, Kunimitsu had been successful with Shigure, who lay limply on his back, breath shallow but steady as he blinked up at the ceiling.

"Kunimitsu, my bag is in the car. Can you get it, please?" Hatori asked raggedly. Kunimitsu nodded and went to get the bag, and Hatori turned back to Kyou. He still lay on his side, trembling and shivering, his skin grey and clammy.

Tohru, too, was ashen and felt all strength melt away from her limbs. She wanted to heal him, protect him, save him, and found herself sort of collapsing inward in relief, curling down over Kyou as if she could shield him from harm with her own body. Her hair fell around their faces, and she began whispering to him in a low voice.

"You're fine now, Kyou-kun," she murmured. "Everything is fine now. I love you. You're going to be alright."

"They're in shock," Hatori said, drawing her attention. "I'll go get blankets." Kazuma nodded absently, and turned his attention to the girl still quietly sobbing against him. He pulled Saki into his lap, cradling her close and using the corner of his sleeve to wipe away the mixture of tears and blood from her face.

"Is Tohru alright?" Hana managed to say.

"She's… fine," Kazuma replied. In truth, he thought Tohru looked one step away from collapse herself, but he didn't think telling Hana that that would be helpful. "What just happened here?"

"I couldn't let him hurt her," Hana said brokenly. "I never actually _tried_ to use my abilities before… always, it was by accident, when I was upset. I think… I think I pushed too hard and it affected all of you. I never meant… _please_ believe me." She clutched at his sleeve with her fingers, staring earnestly up at him. "I never meant to hurt anyone, not even that Akito, I just wanted to stop him from hurting Tohru-chan. Please, please…"

Kazuma exchanged a glance with Tohru. "I believe you," he replied. There was such anguish in her dark eyes, such remorse. She was crying again, in great heaving sobs against his throat, and he gathered her tightly to him until she calmed, seeming to drift asleep.

A hand held out a blanket to Kazuma; Hatori had returned with a pile of them. Kazuma tucked it around Hana and watched as Hatori covered Kyou, Tohru, and Shigure with others before bringing one to Kureno for Akito.

The head of the Sohma family was rocking back and forth, keening to himself in an eerie singsong and clinging desperately to Kureno; if he noticed when the blanket was wrapped around his narrow shoulders, he gave no indication.

Kunimitsu was soon back with Hatori's doctor bag, which was ringing vehemently. Hatori extracted a shrieking cell phone from it.

"Yes," he said. "Yes, it happened here, too… Akito-san, Shigure, Kyou, and myself." He paused a moment before continuing, his gaze flicking across the room to the Rooster, suddenly inscrutable. "And Kureno." Kureno turned his eyes back to Akito. "Who is accounted for?"

Hatori let out a harsh breath at the reply. "I want people looking for Rin," he said. "Everyone you can spare. You won't be able to stop Hatsuharu from going, but don't let him go by himself, he'll get lost. I'll go to Ayame's." He glanced over at Tohru. "I think we know where Yuki might be, I'll go there, too."

"Watch them closely," Hatori said shortly to whomever was on the other end. "Who's not accounted for?"

At the reply he received, Hatori slumped back against the wall as if too weak to support himself.

"I'll be there as soon as I can leave here," he mumbled, and closed his eyes. "Soon."

"What is it?" Kazuma asked, sounding apprehensive. "What's happened?"

"It seems all of the Jyuunishi have been affected by… whatever it is Hanajima-san did here tonight," Hatori replied wearily. "All suffered severe seizures and stopped breathing. Momiji, Hiro, Kisa, Ritsu, Haru, and Kagura were all revived. No one's seen Rin in hours. There's no answer at Ayame's…"

He broke off, jabbing a number into his cell phone and drumming his fingers on his knee as he listened to it ring.

"…so I'm going over there," he said bleakly, getting to his feet.

Kazuma nodded, laying Saki carefully on the floor and standing as well.

Just then, Shigure flung back his blanket and lurched up, uncharacteristically clumsy. "I'm going, too," he said.

"You should stay here and rest," Hatori said sternly, cupping his cousin's elbow to help him balance himself upright.

"You're just as shaky as the rest of us," Shigure protested, frowning at him. It was true; there was a fine tremor to Hatori's hands that had not gone unnoticed by the others. "Tori-san, it's _Aya_."

Hatori stared back a moment before sighing and nodding. "Fine, fine." He turned to Tohru.

"Tohru-san," Hatori said, placing his hand on her shoulder in a gentle jostle to get her attention, "try to reach Yuki. I know you have an idea where he is. Call my cell phone when you learn something."

Slowly Tohru sat back from her crouch over Kyou. She pushed her hair off her face as she gazed, unblinking, up at Hatori, and then nodded.

He turned away, rifling through his bag, and fished out a bottle of pills, which he handed to Kureno.

"Give Akito two of these right away, they'll calm him down. I don't know when I'll be back. If he's still upset in an hour, give him another, but no more."

Kureno took the bottle, nodding gravely.

"I think they will be fine. Keep them warm and calm. If any of them seem to take a turn for the worse, ring for an ambulance without fail, absolutely without fail." Hatori's face seemed lined, suddenly, lined and tired and old. His shoulders were slumped, as if they supported the weight of the world, and Kazuma grasped his shoulder in a show of camaraderie.

"Let us know how everyone is," he said.

Hatori exhaled, consciously releasing some tension, and was then gone, Shigure following close behind.

Tohru's motions were jerky as she stood, shrugging off her blanket and carefully placing Kyou's head on it.

"Will Hana-chan be alright?" she whispered to Kazuma, watching her friend as she lay there, unconscious.

"Hatori said they would be…" Kazuma ventured, and bent to tuck an edge of blanket more securely around Hanajima. "Go, call Yuki. I'll watch them all."

She nodded and padded out to the hallway phone, her gait careful, as if she were afraid that one wrong step would have her tumbling to the floor.

Kazuma went to Akito; he lay curled in Kureno's lap, quiet now but still rocking back and forth.

"Is he well?" Kazuma asked, studying how the other man was breathing, the colour of his complexion.

"I don't know," Kureno replied simply, not turning his head toward Kazuma, who stood there a moment longer before returning to the other side of the room. For all the suffering he'd caused everyone for the past decade, Akito was a pathetic figure, and any resentment Kazuma might have harbored drained away at the sight of his frail body clinging so pitifully to Kureno.

Kazuma knelt between Kyou and Hana and reached out to both of them, his anxiety lessening just watching them breathe easily. Relaxing fractionally, he allowed his mind to wander to less emergent issues. Why had the Zodiac members been more harshly affected than the rest of them? For that matter, why had Kureno not reacted like his fellow Jyuunishi?

Less puzzling, but no less worrying, was Kyou's fate. Akito had tried, if unsuccessfully, to take Kyou to the Cat's room. Hanajima had bought Kyou a reprieve with the use of her powers this evening, and for that alone Kazuma felt an almost embarrassing amount of gratitude to her. But how long would it last? What would happen when Akito had recovered? Would he uphold his promise to let Kyou graduate high school, or continue to insist that Kyou be locked away immediately?

"I won't let them take you away," he murmured, combing his fingers through Kyou's unruly hair. The boy's face was mottled with pink, and there were dark, bruise-like shadows under his eyes. "Even if we have to leave town and move somewhere else, I won't let them."

"Good," Tohru said, and Kazuma looked up to see her standing by him, back from using the telephone. She dropped heavily to her knees at his side, placing a hand on Kyou's head also, their fingers almost touching in the thick auburn mass. "But if you go, can you please take me with you?"

"I—" Kazuma didn't know what to say. How could he bring a girl, with no blood relation, with them?

"Please," she entreated. Her eyes were huge, pleading, but dry. "_Please_," she repeated, more urgently, when he didn't answer. "Please don't take him away from me."

A hand brushed both of theirs from Kyou's head; Kyou himself had woken up and was struggling to sit up from under the mass of blankets piled on top of him. He glared when they went to help him, pushing himself upright under his own power.

"I'm really glad you want to take me away from the family, if Akito still wants to lock me up," he told his surrogate father. "But I won't leave Tohru." He looked away, a faint blush staining his cheeks as he mumbled, "I'd rather be locked up here, close to her, than free somewhere else."

Kazuma was rendered speechless. Kyou was not the most forthcoming of boys in the best of circumstances, but this…

His surprised musings were interrupted by Tohru's gasp— she clasped her hands together at her chest, the supplication on her face abruptly giving way to apprehension before she launched herself at Kyou, almost knocking him backward as she wrapped herself around him, clinging like a limpet.

"No, Kyou-kun!" she exclaimed, eyes squeezed shut. "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about me, and I'm so happy Kyou-kun loves me so much, but, but you can't! It would be horrible if you were locked up, just so you could be near me! I couldn't come visit you, after all, and it would all be a waste! A horrible, terrible waste!"

There was no reaction to her words, and in fact the body within her grasp had gone very, very still. Tohru lifted her head from his chest and peeked up at him, then over at Kazuma, who was similarly frozen.

"Kyou-kun?" Tohru asked haltingly. Had she done something wrong? Been too insistent? Offended them by telling Kyou what to do? "Shishou-san?"

"Tohru, where's the blanket?" Kyou asked then, his voice sounding thin.

She peered around, and spotted their blankets discarded on the floor.

"Right there…" she said, wondering why he cared. And then the heartbeat under her ear grew louder, started pounding faster, and shock slammed into her.

"Kyou-kun…" she began slowly. Wild hope sparked to life within her. "If the blankets are over there, and I'm hugging you…"

His arms came around her with painful hesitancy, holding her securely against him as carefully as if she were made of glass at first, then with more strength as time passed uneventfully.

"I'm still not changing," Kyou whispered at last, lifting wide burgundy eyes to his father. "Shishou, I'm still not changing."

He buried his face against Tohru's hair, then, and after a moment his shoulders began to shake. Kazuma realized he was crying. Tohru's arms slid around Kyou's neck and she held him, stroking his back and hair and whispering to him. Kazuma felt his throat tighten with emotion as the full import of it hit him.

"You're free," he said roughly, passing his hand over his own damp eyes.

Movement to his right made him glance to the side; Hana had sat up. She seemed older, somehow, and infinitely weary. She had wrapped her arms around her waist and was looking at him with a sort of resigned expectation.

She was waiting for him to become angry with her for causing everyone so much pain, he realized, and almost smiled to think of how far from anger he felt at that moment. In her, Kazuma saw nothing but the person who had liberated his son from a terrible fate.

He took her hands, startling her so that they lay slack in his grasp. "You have saved him," he told her gravely. "You have saved all of them." One by one, he lifted her hands to his lips, pressing a kiss to their palms.

She blushed, more from shock than modesty he suspected, and turned her hands in his grasp to cup his face, just gazing at him with her limpid eyes.

"Oh, no," Kyou moaned, and they turned to see him staring at them in horror.

Tohru, however, was beaming at them brightly. Her face was still drawn and pale, but there was a light in her eyes that spoke of great joy, unshadowed by fear for the first time in a year.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: **Thanks to everyone for your kind reviews, I appreciate your interest and support :) Hope you like this chapter, I had fun writing it.

**Blue Heaven, chapter 14**

In spite of the early hour—it was barely eight o'clock—Yuki and Arisa were asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows. But rest was not long to be theirs.

It seemed like no time at all had passed before Yuki found himself jerked free from the confines of sleep by a terrible, all-encompassing pain. Every sense was affected; a roaring in his ears, a burning in his eyes, a foul stench in his nose, and his mouth stung with bitterness.

Arisa was awake even before his breathless shout of alarm.

"Yuki," she said, eyes huge in the dim murk of the unlit bedroom. "Yuki! What's wrong!"

He wanted to answer her, even though he didn't know what was happening, didn't know anything but the searing agony that gripped him. Pain stabbed upward from his fingers and toes until it reached his chest, and he struggled to even draw breath against it, the sounds of his gasps fading against the screaming rush in his ears.

"You're scaring me," Arisa told him, trying to hold down his flailing hands. Yuki tried to maintain eye contact with her, but it was impossible, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he bucked in another paroxysm.

Limbs trembling, he jackknifed upright before the pain had him unbending once more, arching backward as he was assailed.

"What's going on?" she shouted, but he had no response for her. She climbed on top of him, pressing his wrists to the mattress to keep him from hurting himself, and breathed a sigh of relief when he began to calm, his body stilling once more. The agonized muscles of his face relaxed, and he seemed once more at peace.

Arisa, panting, allowed herself to relax as well.

"What the hell was that?" she demanded, brushing his bangs off his face. When he didn't answer, she patted his cheek, lightly at first, then a little harder to try and rouse him. "Yuki?"

Still no response, and her stomach flipped over when she trailed her hand down his throat and didn't feel a pulse.

"Oh, shit," she whispered. "Oh, shit." She closed her eyes, trying desperately to remember how to do CPR from her health classes of last year. Her hands shook as she found the proper spot on his chest and began to push up and down.

After a few compressions, she scrambled off him to the side and pinched his nose shut, blowing her own breath into him several times before returning to push on his chest. Back and forth, back and forth, Arisa worked feverishly, barely able to see for the tears streaming down her face.

And then, in the moment between moving between compressions and breaths, Yuki shuddered and spasmed, sucking in a giant lungful of air. Arisa sat back on her heels and buried her face in her hands, sobbing noisily.

"Arisa-san," Yuki whispered, "don't cry. I'm fine now."

She slumped down until her head lay on his chest, and lifted a hand to cup his face.

"Yuki, you weren't breathing," she croaked, sniffling. "For a long time. I thought… I thought you had died."

He struggled to sit up, ignoring the residual ache in his bones, and grasped her arms before touching his forehead to hers.

"I'm sorry you were so scared," he told her. "I was scared, too. I never felt anything like that before, and I don't know what it was from."

She clung to him, trembling, her hands moving over his shoulders and chest as if to reassure herself that he was truly alive.

"Please don't do anything like that again," she muttered, burying her face against his neck.

He couldn't help but laugh a little. "I don't think I have any control over it."

"Should you go to a doctor or something?" Her breath was warm against his throat, and he rubbed her back idly, the motion soothing both of them.

"Ordinarily, I'd call Hatori, but…" With Akito wanting to find them, contacting Hatori or anyone else was no longer safe.

She nodded against him. "I know. Regular hospital, then?"

"I— actually, Arisa-san, except for the shaking… I feel fine." It was true; there lingered a slight tremor in his hands, but apart from that, Yuki was feeling rather good, considering that a mere five minutes ago he'd been almost dead.

"Please? Just to be sure?"

It would take a stronger man than he to refuse her sweetly pleading face and big, worried eyes; Yuki sighed and nodded, climbing out of the bed. She was right there beside him when he wobbled a bit, her hand at his arm to steady him, and such was the rush of love he felt at the sight of her that he couldn't help but drop a kiss on her mouth.

Her arms immediately wound around his neck, and she kissed him back, fervently. All the fear and worry she'd felt was poured into it, and he stroked her hair and shoulders tenderly.

"I think you saved my life tonight, Arisa," he told her when they parted.

"I think you scared a dozen years off mine," she shot back, and went to dig in her closet for shoes that would fit him.

"What if—" he stammered, having a moment of insight. "What if what happened to me didn't just happen to me? What if everyone else was affected, too?"

"Everyone else?" Arisa stared at him. "Don't tell me that there are others—"

Yuki's shoulders slumped a little. "Yes, there are thirteen of us in the Sohma family, cursed like I am."

"You all become rats?"

He had to smile at that. "No, each of us becomes a different animal of the Chinese zodiac. I'm the rat, Shigure's the dog, Kyou is the cat—"

"But there is no cat in the zodiac," she protested, handing him a corduroy jacket.

"…It's a long story," Yuki said, and pulled the jacket on. He felt odd, wearing an entire set of clothes that weren't his. At least she favoured masculine styles, or he'd be feeling pretty stupid right about now.

They were almost out the door when the phone rang. They glanced at each other in apprehension.

"What do you think?" Arisa asked. "Should we chance it? If it's them, answering it would just confirm we're here."

"But it could be Honda-san," said Yuki. "She's probably worried sick about us."

Arisa stepped to the phone. "Hello?" she said, her voice purposefully pitched low.

"Uo-chan?" Tohru's voice, even over the phone wire, sounded thready.

"Tohru-chan?" Arisa said. "Are you okay?"

"Um, mostly," Tohru replied slowly. "How is Yuki-kun? Is he alright?"

Arisa eyed him. "He's fine, now. But he had some sort of fit, and stopped breathing. Here, you can talk to him." She handed the receiver to him.

"Honda-san," he said warmly. "You're alright?"

"I am now," she told him. "Everyone here is okay, too, and at the Honke, also."

"So it did affect the entire Jyuunishi," he sighed. "Is everyone accounted for?"

"Everyone except Rin-chan and Ayame-san," Tohru replied. "Yuki-kun, I'm worried about them."

Yuki felt like ice-water had filled his veins. "We'll go to Nii-san's," he said. "It's not all that far from here. I will talk to you later, Honda-san."

He put the phone down and turned to Arisa. "My brother," he told her, grabbing her hand and starting out of the apartment. "We have to go to him."

"But, the hospital!" she protested, slamming the door behind them as they flew down the stairs.

"Later," he said, dismissing the idea altogether. "I'm fine now, really." On the sidewalk outside, he stopped a moment to get his bearings and decide which way to go. "You up for another run?"

She smirked at him. "Do I have a choice?"

He smiled back. "Nope." And the took off toward the north, heading toward a shopping district that specialized in textiles and custom clothing shops. Yuki was glad they'd bundled up a bit, because even though the evening was still young, the temperature had dropped. A glance at Arisa told him that her cheeks and nose were red.

Still, he dared not slow down. Ayame was annoying and lecherous, but he had been trying so hard these past few years to make up for his desertion of Yuki so long ago. Ayame was his brother, no matter what.

"Can you go a bit faster?" he asked her. His worry must have communicated itself to her, because she only nodded and sped up.

Relief flooded Yuki when they skirted a corner and Ayame's store came into view. The glass door was locked, however, even though a sliver of light showed at the bottom of the door to the workroom.

"I can pick it," Arisa said, fumbling in her pockets.

Visions of Ayame, dead on the floor, swam in Yuki's vision.

"There's no time," he said, and braced himself. With a single, well-placed kick, he shattered the glass panel, balling the cuff of his jacket over his hand to reach in and unlock the door. The shards of glass crunched under their feet as they bolted into the store.

"Nii-san!" Yuki shouted, hands braced in the doorway to the workroom. It was empty, though a mess, a huge tray of sewing supplies spilled all over the floor. A full second passed while fright and frustration flitted through him, and then the sound of someone groaning in pain in the office beyond the workroom caught his attention.

"Do you hear that?" he asked, dashing across the room to the door, Arisa right behind him. As he grasped the doorknob, a particularly loud moan could be heard. Alarmed, Yuki flung it open—

--and found Ayame rolling around on the floor with Mine, discarded clothing littering the ground around them. Both were naked, flushed, and clearly enjoying themselves.

The worry that had been consuming Yuki since Tohru's phone call abruptly dissolved, replaced with a blind, almost barbaric fury.

"_Nii-san!_" he roared.

The nude couple on the floor froze for a moment, and Ayame slowly turned his head toward them.

"Yuki!" he exclaimed delightedly. "You brought your LITTLE FRIEND to visit! How WONDERFUL!"

"Nii-san," Yuki said tightly, teeth clenched, "I need to talk to you." Beside him, Arisa's face was slack with shock.

Ayame flung a hank of long silver hair back over his shoulder and smiled charmingly. "I'm afraid this isn't the best time for me— ooh, Mine, that tickles, hee hee— Yuki, do you think you could come back tomorrow?"

Yuki was going to have a stroke, he was sure of it. There was no way his blood pressure could shoot up so high without some serious repercussions.

"Hehehehe. Good one, Ayame," said a voice behind Yuki. He turned to see Shigure and Hatori standing in the doorway, both equally as out-of-breath as he and Arisa had been after their frantic run to the shop. The former was grinning and leering openly at Mine's state of undress.

"Ayame," Hatori said, sounding torn between fatigue and amusement. "Stop that, and get dressed. Hello, Mine-san."

"Tori-san!" The Snake immediately picked himself up off of Mine and got gracefully to his feet, unaware or uncaring that he was not only stark naked but still… interested. "Such a MARVELOUS surprise, having everyone come visit. Are we having a party?"

"Oh, dear god," Yuki mumbled, spinning around to face away from him (and tugging on Arisa's sleeve until she too tore her eyes from the spectacle of his brother). The rustle of fabric told him that Ayame and Mine were putting on their clothes.

"Ayame, did you experience any pain or discomfort about twenty minutes ago?" Hatori asked, as if his cousin had not spoken.

"Hm," Ayame said, and Yuki turned to see his brother stop and place a finger to his lips in thought. It would have been an innocent, thoughtful pose, if not for the fact that Ayame had pulled up his trousers but failed to fasten them, and was still exposed in all his glory.

"It's not that difficult a question!" Yuki shouted. "Twenty minutes ago, did you feel excruciating pain, as if all your bones were fusing together?"

Ayame's face lit up, as if the memory were a fond one. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "It felt like my blood was BOILING! I fell over and spilled my tray of notions—oh, I DO hope I didn't lose that spool of Egyptian silk thread, that colour is IMPOSSIBLE to find anymore—"

"Ayame." Hatori stepped forward at last and captured his gracefully waving wrist in order to take his pulse.

"Yes, yes… so, I fell and darling Mine, here, tended me with such KINDNESS! Such DEDICATION! Such DEVOTION! And when I stopped breathing, it was her tender ministrations that prevented me from leaping forward into THE ARMS OF DEATH! With the skill of a professional nurse, she led me back from that black abyss!"

"And you decided to celebrate not dying by—by---" Yuki couldn't say it.

"By having sex?" Ayame supplemented helpfully. "No, not at all. The sex was to celebrate the breaking of the curse."


	15. Chapter 15

So, finally and at long last, the final chapter to Blue Heaven. My most sincere apologies for how long it's taken me to finish it up. I hope it was worth the wait :) Please let me know what you think of it! Many thanks to Quirkyslayer for her beta skillz :)

Blue Heaven, Chapter 15 (the end)

Ayame allowed Hatori to take his pulse, but continued to wave his free hand around to better illustrate the ordeal he'd just survived. "I fell and darling Mine, here, tended me with such KINDNESS! Such DEDICATION! Such DEVOTION! And when I stopped breathing, it was her tender ministrations that prevented me from leaping forward into THE ARMS OF DEATH! With the skill of a professional nurse, she led me back from that black abyss!"

"And you decided to celebrate not dying by—by---" Yuki couldn't say it.

"By having sex?" Ayame supplemented helpfully. "No, not at all. The sex was to celebrate the breaking of the curse."

The words fell like grenades, shocking them all into profound stillness.

"What?" Hatori whispered. His face was ashen. "Are you... are you sure?"

Yuki felt lightheaded and cold even as something that could be elation bubbled in his chest. Still, there was doubt-- you didn't cope for the entirety of your life with a curse and instantly believe it could be gone. Suspicion threatened to overwhelm the hope struggling to break free.

Then Arisa turned to him with a wobbly smile. "One way to know for sure," she said, and held out her hands. The others watched, eyes wide. Shigure's face was avid, but Hatori's looked frozen with an ancient pain. Yuki lurched, rather than stepped, to Arisa and jerkily brought his arms up to embrace her. Their bodies met from shoulder to knee, the sensation of warmth lashing Yuki's emotions into even more of a mess.

"Wait," he rasped, pulling away and starting to fumble with the buttons of the jacket Arisa had loaned him. "These coats are bulky; it might not be accurate." Comprehension lit her features, and she began to remove her jacket as well. Then, eagerly, they fell into each other's embrace again, this time separated by nothing more than two thin layers of cloth, and Yuki gritted his teeth against the inevitable _poof!_ of smoke and the eventual sensation of falling as gravity kicked in and his new, smaller form fell to the ground.

...except that it never came. They embraced, chests radiating heat into each other, and nothing happened. Well, Yuki's more mischievous body parts perked up at the feel of Arisa's nicely developed bosom in such intimate proximity to his own body, but other than that, there were no alarming occurrences, and it was with wonderment (and, yes, a faint blush as he angled his hips away from his girlfriend's) that Yuki turned his face toward his cousins.

"It's really broken," he whispered through numb lips.

Another moment of silence, which of course Shigure felt honor-pressed to shatter. "Well," he said in an oily tone that promised lechery to come, "I won't believe it until I have some proof of my own."

In a flash he whisked Yuki away from Arisa and slithered into her arms, one hand at her back (the better to press her chest into his) and the other directly on her backside (the better to neatly align their pelvises). Yuki growled and reached out with fingers curved into claws, ready to peel the dog (former dog?) away from his girlfriend in strips, if need be.

But Arisa shook her head over Shigure's shoulder. "It's okay," she muttered, and Yuki peered closer to see that his cousin's arms were trembling, a fine tremor going through his shoulders. Arisa firmly readjusted Shigure's hands so they were at the marginally more appropriate location of her hips and patted him soothingly, as if he were an overlarge child waking from a nightmare.

Yuki glanced at the others; Ayame and Mine were snuggled against each other, murmuring romantic nonsense and exchanging little nibbling kisses. And Hatori... Hatori was watching the others with a barely-restrained hunger, his hands shaking at his sides.

And Mine, dear Mine... Yuki had to wonder what a smart thing like Mine saw in his idiot brother, because the lovely girl noticed Hatori's distress and untangled herself from Ayame. She smoothed the front of her maid costume and went to Hatori, arms outstretched in welcome.

"Hatori-san," she murmured with a welcoming smile, and he made a sound that in another man might have been called a sob. Slowly as an old man, with disbelieving caution, he moved into her embrace and closed his arms around her. His eyes shut, and the most brilliant smile curved his lips.

Ayame beamed past him and Mine at Yuki, and Arisa extricated herself from Shigure's clutches to watch, insinuating herself against Yuki's side under his arm. He was shocked to look at her face and find her crying, tears dripping off her chin.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly, using the sleeve of his shirt to dry her face.

"To see how unhappy he must have been," she whispered. "All of you. I didn't know your secret was something this... terrible, how much it's affected you all. And I was so scared tonight, but now it's over and everything's okay, and--" She stopped and sniffled wetly. It sounded kind of disgusting but Yuki didn't care. He just kissed her, tasting the tears on her lips.

"I'm tired," he said. "Let's go back to sleep."

"Bed!" exclaimed Ayame. "A SPLENDID IDEA, brother mine!" He pried Hatori away from Mine and twirled her in an elaborate dance move that, to her credit, she followed through with in admirable aplomb. Truly, they were a match made in overly elaborate heaven.

"What time is it?" Hatori asked. He had regained control of himself once more, of course, and looked much like his usual self. But there was something different about him; the ever-present strain had left his face; his features had relaxed, and his lips were curled in a faint smile. He looked five years younger. "I want to call Mayu."

"Oh, it's far too late to go calling young women," Shigure said breezily. "Otherwise I'd have been on Aya's phone already. I can hardly wait to test-drive this newfound ability of ours."

"NONSENSE," shouted the former snake from around the mouthful of Mine's throat he was lavishing a hickey upon. "Mayu would welcome your call any time of the DAY OR NIGHT, Tori-san, and you know it!"

Hatori said nothing, just sauntered out of the office toward the shop's entrance. After a moment, Shigure followed, yammering nonsense as usual. Yuki looked around; the shop's workroom was fairly trashed, a fair reflection of how his mind felt at that moment.

"Um, if we hurry maybe we can get your cousin to drive us back to my place," Arisa mumbled, gaze (mostly) averted from the spectacle Ayame and his girlfriend were making. Yuki saw with a vague revulsion that Ayame's hands were busily unlacing the intricate network of fastenings holding Mine's bodice together.

"Yes, please," Yuki muttered, and grabbing Arisa's hand, hurried them both out of the shop.

x X x

Tohru watched from the safe haven of Kyou's arms, one blanket wrapped snugly around them both, as Kureno helped some men in hospital uniforms bundle Akito onto a gurney. Akito had not shown any sort of coherence since regaining consciousness, just staring into space and murmuring "gone, it's all gone, they're all gone, gone," in a creepy singsong voice until Tohru's skin had goosebumped and Kyou had swept her into his lap and swathed her in the blanket.

"That was fast," Kazuma commented to Kureno. He sat with his back against the wall, Hanajima in the protective circle of his arm as she dozed, still fatigued from her exertions of the night. "You had to have had their number on you, to be able to contact a mental institution so quickly."

Kureno nodded tiredly. Tohru was so used to seeing him with the tiny Akito that it was distinctly odd to watch the tall young man by himself; he seemed diminished and yet unburdened by a great weight he'd carried for so long. "I've feared that Akito could suffer his greatest breakdown at any time," he said quietly, "so I've taken to carrying their number with me at all times for the past year."

"It's been that bad for that long?" asked Kazuma, clearly shocked at how the Sohma family head had deteriorated. "How pitiful." He quiet for a moment, then said, "Kureno, how is it that you weren't as affected by it as the other Jyuunishi?"

That startled Tohru; she'd been so caught up in fretting about Kyou and Hana that she hadn't noticed anything different about Kureno. As she watched, Kureno's eyes widened, then closed briefly, whether in relief or resignation, she couldn't tell.

"The curse has had no hold over me for several years now," he replied at last. "I'm told it's been weakening for the last few generations, and it finally broke with me. I have reason to believe that even if this hadn't happened tonight, the next few years would have seen several more of us freed as I was."

Against her, Tohru could feel Kyou tense. "You haven't been under the curse in years, and you didn't tell any of us? Didn't let us know there was hope for us, too?"

Kureno lifted bleak eyes to him. "Akito knew the moment it happened to me," he said, "and forbade me from telling anyone."

"But if the curse was broken," Tohru ventured, "then you didn't _have_ to obey him, did you?"

Kureno was silent for a long moment. "No," he said finally. "But I feared for what he might do to anyone I told, who showed happiness that the days of the curse might be numbered."

They were all quiet, thinking of the truth in his words; Akito would have been enraged to witness any of his Jyuunishi's pleasure at the end of the tie that bound them all to their god.

"Also," he continued, his voice more faint, "I pitied him. He's so terribly alone. I couldn't bear to take away from him the only thing that made his life worth living."

"Tormenting and abusing a bunch of kids," Kyou spat, disgust making him tremble. "Don't you care what he did to Rin, and Kisa, and Yuki? Don't you care what he was going to do to _me_?"

"Yes!" protested Kureno. "But--"

"But you felt worse for him than you did for us," Kyou finished spitefully. "You could have told one of us, helped Akito along to his breakdown years ago. He could have been committed _years_ ago. We might still be cursed, but without him there to torture us, without us having to look over our shoulders to see what ugly game he was going to play on us this time..."

He seemed to have run out of words. Eyes narrow with fury, he stood so quickly he almost dumped Tohru on the ground. He quickly righted her, tucking the blanket around her shoulders before squaring his own. "Thanks for nothing, Kureno." He tossed the young man a scathing glance and stomped from the room.

Kureno looked old, his face lined and weary. Tohru felt a little bad for him, but mostly she agreed with Kyou. It was just cruel to not do anything to help the others. She stood slowly, feeling very tired, and went to the phone, not looking at Kureno as she passed him. She didn't know what to do or say to him; she'd never felt so unhappy with someone like this before.

Tohru called Hana's parents and gave them directions to Kazuma's home, then returned to wake up her friend. Kureno was gone, and Kunimitsu was helping Hana stand while Kazuma got to his feet.

Hana's lovely eyes filled with tears once again. "Tohru-chan," she whispered, "I'm so sorry I hurt you."

Tohru just smiled and hugged her. "Don't you see?" she whispered into the abundant fall of Hana's hair. "You saved me. You saved _them._ You saved everyone." She pulled back and smiled up at her friend. "I think they'll all agree the pain was worth it."

Hana smiled back uncertainly. "I still don't understand what I saved them from." She turned and gazed placidly at Kazuma. "But I hope one day you'll tell me?"

He nodded. "One day," he agreed, and led her to the door.

Tohru followed at a slower pace; behind her, Kunimitsu began to tidy the room. She slipped out the back door, picking her way cautiously in the dark toward where she knew Kyou would be hiding.

"You're going to trip and break your leg," he grumbled from above her, and she tilted her head back to see his eyes, and not much else, gleaming in the moonlight-- the rest of him was hidden by the leaves of the tree in which he was crouching.

"And then you'll swoop in and carry me to safety," she replied, grinning up at him. Tonight had been frightening and painful, but she was filled with an elation so wild she could barely contain it. They were free! The cloud hanging over them for so long was gone! She felt bad for Akito, but... she was so, so, so happy for Kyou and Yuki and everyone else. Maybe now the anger would leave Rin and Hiro, maybe Kisa's and Ritsu's fear would fade, maybe Momiji's and Hatori's sadness would turn to joy. Rin and Haru could be together, Yuki would have the life he deserved, and Kyou...

"I love you," she told him. Air whispered by her face, and he landed lightly beside her, his hands coming to hold her.

"Guess I don't need this anymore," he said quietly, after a moment, and she opened her eyes to find him holding up his wrist, displaying the bracelet. She reached out and slowly, slowly removed it, not even realizing until it was off and nothing happened that she'd been holding her breath until she let it all out in a loud _whoosh. _She cocked back her arm and flung the bracelet into the trees, as hard as she could.

"We're going to have a very happy life, now." Tohru pressed her face against Kyou's shoulder and hugged him tighter.

"We are, huh?" he replied, a smile in his voice. She felt him drop a kiss on her hair, and nodded firmly.

"We're going to graduate from high school, and go to college, and get jobs." She could already picture them with diplomas in hand, ready to take on the world.

"Get married and have children," Kyou added quietly, suddenly very still against her, nervously awaiting her reaction.

"Children!" she exclaimed, a trifle manic as she twitched free of his embrace. "Ahahaha! That's... that's a lot to plan for, it's so far in the future and, and, and a jet could fall from the sky right now and splat on top of us! Ahahaha!"

Kyou only pulled her back against him, laughing helplessly. "I didn't mean we should have the children right _now_, dummy," he said, knuckling her gently in the head. "Just... eventually."

"Eventually?" she repeated, staring up at him. In the moonlight that fell through the leaves and branches of the tree, he was very, very handsome. "I can live with eventually."

He kissed her, then tucked her head under his chin. "I might even let you name our first son Raidon."

"You'd better," she said comfortably. "Or I'll let Hana-chan decorate the nursery. Black ducks _everywhere._"

Kyou clutched his head, groaning theatrically, while on the other side of the house his father was handing Hanajima into her father's car and nodding numbly while she calmly informed him she would be visiting him for lunch tomorrow, and could he please make sure there were plenty of pickles?

And Hatori wound the telephone cord around his finger, smiling as he chatted with Mayu, who had most definitely _not_ minded his late call. Rin let Hatsuharu kiss her, and Kagura walked hand-in-hand in the garden with Ritsu. Ayame and Mina finished their post-coital snack and went back for shag number three, Hiro hugged his little sister while Kisa watched and smiled, and Yuki and Arisa slept on. Kureno entered a peaceful hospital room, and Shigure looked up from Akito's side, then gestured for the former rooster to take a seat.

And Momiji turned away from the window, where he'd been watching his sister enter their parents' house. Just moments earlier, she'd hugged him goodnight. He had a wide, wide smile on his face, because he'd always known that things would work out.

He picked up his violin, and began to play.


End file.
